I fear the foam. Star-San foam that is. Whenever I sanitize my carboys before I pour in my wort I always do a second small rinse to get some of that foam out. Harp all you want about star San breaking down into yeast nutrient or what not but it bothers me how that star San tastes, and I don't quite like the idea of THAT much foam going into my beer. Doubt I need that much "yeast nutrient" in there either, especially when I have actual yeast nutrient to use if I want to.
I brew way more than I can drink or give away and a lot waters the garden so I have room to keg more.
I don't clean my equipment. Just rinse with hot water, until there is no visible gunk on them. Then I sanitize on my next brew day.
This is my routine as well. Scrub and rinse off the visible sludge after use, Star San on everything before the next use. No infections yet. (Famous last words...)
This isn't exactly brewing related, but I had to confess my sins. I had almost a full glass of an excellent barrel aged quad, and my cousin that I was staying with wanted to go for a walk. I didn't want to waste the beer, so I just dumped it, along with what was left in the bottle, into one of those pop-top thermoses and drank it while walking around East Boston.
When I read threads on HBT I start at the end and read the most recent posts first and work my way back. I have no idea why I do this. I've read 100 page threads backwards, and it totally made sense.
As per usual, since my kegs were still pressurize and in the kegerator empty, I just rinsed them with hot water and put in the next beer.
This is a confession now? In that case, oops. Sign me up.
Torques the crap of some folks...even worse when I realized it had been months since I did more.
Still have not cleaned the lines in over 10 batches...maybe 20.
Still have not cleaned the lines in over 10 batches...maybe 20.
When I kick a keg and I'm ready to fill it right away I just boil some water and pour it into the corny and put the lid on. Then wait for the steam to build up a little pressure so the lid seals and I shake the tar out of it to sanitize. Then I hook it up to my tap and there is usually enough pressure to push the hot water out and clean my tap that way. Works ok so far. Of course I found the cold to hot loosens the fittings so usually I need to check those.
Technically, the steam cannot build if the thermal mass is less than boiling temp. what you are feeling is the pressure just from the temperature imbalance in the sealed container...think a good contico coffee cup.
So you are adding say 8-16#'s of boiling to an 8-12# keg (assuming no other liquids)...you are above "tepid" but not much more over "hot tub" once you slosh it around. Soooooo...what have you gained?
Exactly what I though, steam doesn't build pressure(unless its becoming steam in the container i.e. a boiler). The opposite is actually happening, a loss is pressure from the cooling of the water, like how jars seal when you boil, screw the lid on, and then cool them.
It works a little different if you are, in my example, adding 2/5ths of volume 212 water to 3/5ths 70 degree air, even with conductive loses of the SS jacket, you will create pressure. It wil nt be steam (for the most part) but it is positive pressure.
Okay, I don't claim to know anything about physics(coulda, shoulda, woulda, but I chose TV broadcasting as a career instead for some reason, even though I was in the top of my organic chemistry class in HS) just going by what I observe in life, and the physics I do know. I assume you are correct, but if it were left to cool down to 70(not that this is anywhere in the example, I just want to validate myself), it would create negative pressure from the gasses and liquid shrinking in volume, correct?
...you are above "tepid" but not much more over "hot tub" once you slosh it around. Soooooo...what have you gained?
Huh? Is this one of those "well actually..."
I agree with kombat that the hot water heats the air in the keg and expands creating pressure -not steam. But I don't rely on the hot air to clean or santize, I shake the boiling water (or near boiling water now) until the whole keg is hot to the touch. I then pour the content out through my tap. Water is still too hot to touch. I do this whole process in less than five minutes.
What I've gained? I'd say at a minimum I'm cleaning the keg and ideally sanitizing the inside with (near) boiling water. And I"m cleaning my tap line and tap.
What I've gained? I'd say at a minimum I'm cleaning the keg and ideally sanitizing the inside with (near) boiling water. And I"m cleaning my tap line and tap.
If you put boiling water into a room temperature keg, seal it, and shake it, you will most definitely get positive pressure inside the keg, even though the water is technically cooling rapidly as it contacts the keg. This is because sloshing it around rapidly heats the air inside the keg, causing it to expand. Since it cannot actually expand, instead this manifests as a pressure increase.
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