I thought you said it was weight. hehe
2.5% w/w is 25g made up to a liter with water for all practical purposes. 95g per gallon, lets round to 100g/gal. You could even make it as 1lb in 4gal, that would slightly stronger than 2.5% but not by much.
[quote=“fightdman”]After trying 2% and 3% solutions, I tried a 4% solution at 160F for hours. I’m still not convinced that it’s clean. :evil:
[/quote]
exactly why I sold my Shirron and Therminator…
Caustic is awesome stuff for other things like kegs and such though…
Like someone said earlier, just sterilize the thing in the oven. Clean it as best you can with PBW, skip the sanitizer and just sterilize it. Cover the wort in and out with aluminum foil while it’s sterilizing in the oven. Then it’s good to go until you pop the aluminum foil off and connect your hoses for the next brew. It’s a piece of cake and you don’t have to worry about anything. If a couple of sterile bits from the heat exchanger flush out into your wort, they just settle out with all the other trub and hop bits you just boiled for 60 or 90 minutes. “How to Brew” has a chart of what time is required at different temperatures for sterilization. I prefer the low heat for a longer time plan.
Glide,Do you have a link for this? I just purchased a Shirron Plate Chiller and want to maintain it from the start. Thanks,
No offense, but you can bake a turd in the oven long enough to sterilize it, but I wouldn’t want it in my beer. :shock:
Mike: FWIW from Palmer’s “How to Brew”:
[quote]HeatHeat is one of the few means by which the homebrewer can actually sterilize an item. Why would you need to sterilize an item? Homebrewers that grow and maintain their own yeast cultures want to sterilize their growth media to assure against contamination. When a microorganism is heated at a high enough temperature for a long enough time it is killed. Both dry heat (oven) and steam (autoclave, pressure cooker or dishwasher) can be used for sanitizing.
OvenDry heat is less effective than steam for sanitizing and sterilizing, but many brewers use it. The best place to do dry heat sterilization is in your oven. To sterilize an item, refer to the following table for temperatures and times required.
Table 3 - Dry Heat SterilizationTemperature
Duration
338°F (170°C)
60 minutes
320°F (160°C)
120 minutes
302°F (150°C)
150 minutes
284°F (140°C)
180 minutes
250°F (121°C)
12 hours (Overnight)
The times indicated begin when the item has reached the indicated temperature. Although the durations seem long, remember this process kills all microorganisms, not just most as in sanitizing. To be sterilized, items need to be heat-proof at the given temperatures. Glass and metal items are prime candidates for heat sterilization.
Some homebrewers bake their bottles using this method and thus always have a supply of clean sterile bottles. The opening of the bottle can be covered with a piece of aluminum foil prior to heating to prevent contamination after cooling and during storage. They will remain sterile indefinitely if kept wrapped.
One note of caution: bottles made of soda lime glass are much more susceptible to thermal shock and breakage than those made of borosilicate glass and should be heated and cooled slowly (e.g. 5 °F per minute). You can assume all beer bottles are made of soda lime glass and that any glassware that says Pyrex or Kimax is made of borosilicate.[/quote]
What? You never dry-crapped a beer with baked turds?
“No offense, but you can bake a turd in the oven long enough to sterilize it, but I wouldn’t want it in my beer.”
None taken. But my point was that there is no turd. At worst, it’s got sterilized hop flakes and trub which is still cleaner than the sanitized hop flakes and trub that are floating around in your boil kettle and also make their way into your fermenter. In addition, the inside of a sterilized Therminator is going to be cleaner than the outside of an immersion chiller even after it’s soaked in Star San or boiling wort for 15 minutes.
I hear what you are saying, but after the hops and trub have sat in their nice moist, dark cave for a few weeks between uses, Mr. Funk moves in with all his funky flunkies (mold, bacteria, wild yeast, etc.) and they start re-decorating the place. Next thing you know, you’ve got a plate chiller full of black crud.
It’s that black, nasty crud, even dried and sterilized, that I don’t want in my beer. Who know what off-flavors it’s bringing to the party?
p.s. And yes, I always back-washed and rinsed right after use. Still didn’t blow out all the hops and trub.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t leave a plate chiller wet inside for 3-4 weeks between brews. After use, I dry it completely in the oven following PBW/hot rinse/cold rinse. Then sterilize in the oven right before use.
In my early brews with the plate chiller, I even did the sterilization after use and again before use. That seemed excessive. But what I did do once was sterilize immediately after use and then flush with water to see what came out. What came out was more of a quick shot of fine gray powder (mixed with water obviously). I imagine it might be like the stuff you see on the inside of your oven after you run the cleaning cycle (so light and airy you can blow it off the inside of your oven).
Anyway, you can’t argue that homebrew plate chillers don’t hang on to gunk. Everyone who owns one knows they always have a little more something to spit out. But, you also can’t argue with sterile. If it’s sterile, it’s not going to spoil your beer. Whether sterile oven ash will affect beer flavor is debateable. But, I’ll bet it has less effect on flavor than irish moss or hot break or hop flakes getting from boil kettle to fermenter and we all tolerate a little of that.
Thanks Fight, I will try this on Saturday for my brew session.
