effective ways to clean tubes

[All-Hail-IPA]

Hey guys I am just curious about some effective ways to clean the tubes used for racking/bottling. I rinse them with water but always seem to get some gunk in them. Any input is appreciated. Thanks a bunch.

 

[clickondan]

I mix up about a gallon of PBW (homemade PBW to be honest) in a bucket, submerge all the tubes and get all the air out of them, siphon up the solution into racking canes etc. and just let it sit for a few hours. Dissolves everything. Then, quick rinse with water. Next time I use them, another quick rinse with water and into the bucket of sanitizer they go.

 

[hunter_le five]

You need more than just water.

Personally, I like to use a cleaner such as B-Brite or PBW to knock out all the crud and gunk, and then follow up with a sanitizer such as Star San.

 

[dsaavedra]

I soak them in PBW/Oxi and then rinse them out. They often have a hazy film after they dry and I found that taking a wad of paper towel soaked in hot water and pushing it through the tubing with an appropriate sized dowel rod a few times takes the film out. I've also heard of people pushing paper towel wads through with compressed air.

 

[inkman15]

Honestly, I just am very diligent about thoroughly rinsing my tubing with hot water after syphoning to ensure that no beer remains and subsequently gets crusty etc. I'll do another rinse again before their next use and then they go into Star San. This has worked for me for years.

The idea of having to push a paper towel through 5 feet of tubing to get Oxiclean off sounds like a nightmare.

 

[mattd2]

I soak them in PBW/Oxi and then rinse them out. They often have a hazy film after they dry and I found that taking a wad of paper towel soaked in hot water and pushing it through the tubing with an appropriate sized dowel rod a few times takes the film out. I've also heard of people pushing paper towel wads through with compressed air.

I push mine through with water - mechnicaally cleans the crud off and then rinses it away. My kitchen water filter tap is the right size to just hold the tube onto the end.

 

[fearwig]

Kinda gunk you getting in there? Hot water and bleach. Run it through. Rinse.

I guess vinyl is stickier and more prone to gunk, but I'm not allowed to use vinyl because pthfthfalates (I refuse to say the word "SWMBO" but in this case, I mean, y'know). Thermoplastic cleans up really easily, I've never had to hit it with PBW/Oxy.

I don't always do a perfect rinse when I'm done, either (being tired and drunk after brewing, maybe), but I usually brew again with two weeks or so, so maybe I'm not seeing the full level of six months' gunk some people do.

 

[Desvio]

I soak all my equipment in 3% citric acid solution both before and after brewing, pretty much strips all gunk and bad bugs right off, and leaves everything nice and sparkly.

 

[Airplanedoc]

I use a wallpaper tray to soak my racking canes, link below to amazon, but your can get them pretty cheap at lowes.

http://www.amazon.com/Encore-Plastics-32160-Heavy-Wallpaper/dp/B000I1E75K

 

[h22lude]

I used to let it soak in OxiClean but I didn't like the haze it left. Now I just let really hot water with soap run through for a few minutes. If you do that right after using it you shouldn't have anything left in it. If you are letting it sit with stuff in it, that is where you will need to soak it.

 

[dsaavedra]

Yeah if it is tubing that I've just run beer or wort through I will just rinse it out real thoroughly with hot water. I've only ever had to soak in PBW and run paper towels through one time and that was on a blowoff tube where the krausen had a chance to harden and gunk up the inside of the tube.