Cleaning with Caustic

[duncan.brown]

In another thread @mabrungard mentioned cleaning pumps and piping with caustic:

Wort will plate and coat pump, piping, and tubing in any brewing system. A caustic cleaning regimen is required occasionally. I perform one every 3 or 4 batches.

I'm curious to hear more details from people who do periodic cleaning of their equipment with caustic. Do people use BLC or food-grade sodium hydroxide (or something else)? What concentrations do people use?

 

[Qhrumphf]

MicroMatic beer line cleaner (the alkaline one, not the acid) is basically identical (iirc) to a built caustic a brewery would use (food gradium sodium hydroxide plus other stuff, potassium hydroxide, surfactants, etc).

A 1-2% food grade sodium hydroxide solution at 140-150F should also get the job done.

Rinse well and then follow up with a food grade acid cycle.

Important to note that soft metals are often not safe for these aggressive chemicals.