DIY Keg and Carboy Washer

[daryl]

You have one of the more high-flow pumps.

You might have to bungee down those plastic Better Bottles or your pump might just shoot them to the ceiling!

[tony b]

Yeah, I do have the larger pump (1/5 HP), but I didn't notice any uplift, just lots of water spraying around. I still need to cut the hole in the bucket lid. With this pump, the wand is offset, so I need to move the hole off center in both axes. Just got to be a bit more cautious about measuring before cutting.

[carrisr]

I finally got to use mine today. Of course I shortened my top tube because many of my kegs are 2.5 to 3 gallon. My pump is overkill too as it's also a 1/5 HP submersible (1100 gph!). When I tried it without a keg it shot a stream 5-6' in the air and emptied 3 gallons in like 10 seconds! I cleaned a serving keg and my 4 gallon fermenter in just a couple of minutes each. The real test will see if it can remove the tough crud that sticks to the walls of my brewing keg which usually takes some elbow grease to get clean. But I'm more than satisfied with it. Thanks Daryl!

[tony b]

Well, I got my real 1st use of the keg washer today, cleaning a primary carboy after transferring to 2ndy. Ran into a problem about 30 seconds in - too much foam! The pump was struggling at that point because of all the foam and I shut it off. The 5 gal bucket was foaming up to the lid. First, I have to admit that I f-ed up and put twice as much cleaner into the 3 gallons of water than called for. However, I think it would have foamed excessively nonetheless. I was using Craft Meister Keg & Carboy Cleaning Tablets.

Any suggestions on additives to kill the foaming or an alternative cleaner that doesn't foam??

[Matt F]

I have had no foaming issues with PBW with my kegwasher.

[daryl]

I haven't had any issue with foaming with PBW, just Starsan....and so I use SaniClean...I think that is what it is called. And I think Matt gave me that recommendation.

But Tony does have that rotating top, and that would contribute to aeration. Try it with Starsan....and if it foams, try it without the head and see what happens.

[whitedj]

Check the temperature recommendations. Sometimes if the temps get off too much the defoaming agents won't work as intended.

Otherwise do you have the ball on and pump going at full power? May be too much agitation.

[tony b]

Thanks! Will try again today. I'll dilute the cleaning solution back down to the recommended strength and start from there. Plus, it will be cold this time. If still no luck, then I'll swap over to PBW and try that next.

Yes, I'll need to get some Saniclean if I plan to use it for that step, as we all know "Don't Fear The Foam" from StarSan.

[jjpeanasky]

Thanks! Will try again today. I'll dilute the cleaning solution back down to the recommended strength and start from there. Plus, it will be cold this time. If still no luck, then I'll swap over to PBW and try that next.

Yes, I'll need to get some Saniclean if I plan to use it for that step, as we all know "Don't Fear The Foam" from StarSan.

I've used those tablets before. They foam up pretty good on initial usage, but after that they seem to calm down. Hopefully it works better for you this time around!

- Josh Peanasky

[tony b]

Results of today's trial.

First, don't double up the concentration of the cleaner - DUH! I diluted it back to the recommended strength and it worked much better.

Second, I misdiagnosed what was going on in the first run. What I thought was the pump cavitating just turned out to be the spinning ball got submerged in enough foam that it just looked like it had stopped pumping. It did it again today, but after 10 minutes of the pump running and it happened slowly enough that I could see it this time. Plus, the foam only built up to just slightly over the ball. The first run, the foaming happened within a minute and completely swamped the ball.

Third, even after soaking overnight in the double strength cleaner, running the washer 15 minutes with the regular strength solution, and a 5 minute clean water rinse cycle - there was still spots of krausen ring left. Easily brushed off, but the whole point of this was - zero manual labor! My previous experience has been an overnight soaking in PBW and the ring just rinsed off cleanly.

So the next question, do I need to run the washer cycles longer, or go back to PBW over Craft Meister tablets? Will have to wait until the next brew day to find out the answer to that question.

[Matt F]

I run PBW through mine with hot water for 20-30 min and fermenter is clean.

[daryl]

You might want to try shortening your standpipe so that higher pressure spray hits closer to the carboy neck where the krausen scum-ring forms.

Before you shorten it, try it out. I would take the lid off of your bucket, place a dirty carboy over the head, but hold the carboy up so that the spray ball is just above the ring, and then turn on your pump (this could be tricky, like Nixon's secretary, hitting the record button tricky). Hopefully, the run out of from the carboy will run into your bucket...but you will be able to control the height of the ball to see what height will take care of the ring.

If it does, then take a look at how high the spray is going.....it does not take a lot to clean the bottom of the carboy, unless you let it crust on/dry out. If you are getting a good amount of spray to the top when you get sufficient pressure to remove the ring....then you should be able to shorten the standpipe and you achieve your total automation scenario.

[tony b]

Did that already. Had the spray pretty much blasting away at the ring. Didn't seem to have a lot of impact. Partially because it sprays so much water that a pool builds up and minimizes the impact of the spray directly on the walls.

Reserving final judgement until the PBW trial. Plus, I haven't cleaned any kegs with it yet. That will probably be next, as I will need an empty one soon for the dunkelweiss.

[mjensen52402]

To get rid of the ring put a wet washcloth in the carboy and swirl it around so the rag is in contact with the ring of filth. The mechanical action of the rag will loosen the filth enough it should rinse right off.

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

[tony b]

do you tie a string to the wash cloth to make it easier to get back out?