Cleaning / Sanitising

[warra48]

I bottled a batch of my favourite APA today.

As I was cleaning the fermenter, I decided to take the rubber seal out of the lid. I normally don't use a lid as I use clingwrap, but I had a blowoff tube in this one, rather than an airlock.

I was unpleasantly surprised to see the amount of muck/mould which deposits or collects in the grooves inside the lid, and also on the outside of the screwtop part of the fermenter.

Even my usual vigourous clean and rinse didn't dislodge all of it, and I had to resort to using a toothbrush to make sure I got at all of it, as getting into the threads is very difficult. Also, don't forget the threads where you insert your tap.

This is stuff which has obviously been building up for some time. Now, it wasn't in direct contact with my beer on this occasion, so I'm not concerned about infection in this batch, but if you brew a beer where you have the kraeusen climbing out of the fermenter, it's a different story.

The moral is to be vigilant in your cleaning and sanitising routine, and don't take anything for granted.

[goq11k_76]

totally agree with everything you have said

I brew mainly in glass carboys for this reason, far cleaner, I rack to kegs so it is easy to syphon from carboy to keg

cleaning with hard bristle brushes is a no no as well it can score the plastic and thus giving more surface area for the germs to form