cleaning brew equipment

[flashburn66]

Hey guys, I just brewed my first batch of Extract beer recently and it came out great!! The kit i had came with One step which i just used to clean/sanitize the equipment. When it came time to keg my beer, I picked up some star San which was really highly recommended by my local home brew store. and they said before I keg the beer, mix the Star San with 5 gallons of water and let it sit for a while then pump it out through the lines with the c02 dont rinse and add beer. which i did and haven't had any issues.

My question is when i go to get my next batch going. to clean everything like fermenting bucket air lock etc, is should i pick up some PBW or can i just use the star san. I have heard some people use Oxy clean etc. Can someone help me shed some light on this. I want to make sure that i am doing this properly. Honestly its tempting to use regular unscented soap to clean with but heard its not a good idea.

thank You

 

[bruteforce]

Use PBW for cleaning. StarSan is just a sanitizer and not that effective for cleaning. I'm not a fan of oxyclean on metal, but for plastic and glass it's fine. Be sure to get the odor free version though, otherwise your beer will taste and smell like your laundry.

 

[cookingozzy]

Use PBW. Star San is for sanitizing. Don't use soap.

 

[thereverendmaynard]

PBW should be rinsed. StarSan should be used on things that require sanitation (anything cold side or that touches cold wort) and should be used after PBW or if its clean. Starsan will foam (which is fine). You can alternatively use iodaphor which does not (better for pumps and such)

For both starsan and iodaphor the mfg recommends you let it dry - however i never do - just get as much as you can off...

 

[DoesItMatter]

One thing I didn't learn until later -- don't keep your sani mix more than a week.

I used to pre-make those and use them a month later, and didn't realize they lost strength, so ended up with infected batches because things weren't getting sanitized!

 

[IslandLizard]

I've kept Starsan working solutions for 2 months (or longer) and they still worked great, even when cloudy!

 

[IslandLizard]

One thing I didn't learn until later -- don't keep your sani mix more than a week.

I used to pre-make those and use them a month later, and didn't realize they lost strength, so ended up with infected batches because things weren't getting sanitized!

With Starsan you must keep the pH under 3.0 for it to be effective.

 

[petrolSpice]

I use dish soap for general cleaning. Some think that it contains chemicals the kill the beer foam and that it's hard to rinse this off. Not sure if this is true or not, but I've never had issues with head retention, as far as I know.

 

[brewcat]

For most cleaning I just rinse with hot water. Most stuff rinses off. I can then wipe off what doesn't. Then sanitize on brew/keg day. I do use a cleaner in my kegs and lines.