Cleaning up after infections

[woozy]

So.. I read a lot of people talking of the importance of keeping separate the equipment for making sours.

Does this mean you can't clean infected equipment??? I have absolutely no intention of dedicating any equipment to sours.

By saying to keep sour equipment from regular equipment are they saying once infected equipment is infected forever? Or are they simply saying continually brewing bacterial beer over and over again gives an increased risk to your in between non-sour beers? Or are they saying the the color schemes of the sour equipment don't aesthetically match the kitchen decor on non-sour brew days?

So once you have an infection how do you clean your equipment? Or do you just toss it out.... (And, no, it doesn't have any scratches or gouges.)

 

[unionrdr]

You could try soaking it with a bleach solution. I soak my fermenters in a PBW solution for 5-7 days. Then rinse well hit'em with Starsan. Being an acid sanitizer,it might help after a soak in cleaner.

 

[rodwha]

I've read that it's quite hard to get rid of an infection once you have one (plastic maybe?). They say toss it. But I'd do as union suggested and soak it in bleach water. I don't know if I had an infection, but someone said they had a similar look to the surface of their beer, and felt it was an infection. I soaked it. Unfortunately I forgot which one it was...But the second beer made in it was one of the best ones I've made so far (IPA). That was before soaking it.

It took a while to get the bleach smell out of it, which is important!

 

[unionrdr]

It takes a few hot rinses to get the bleach smell out.

 

[woozy]

Okay...

Well, in this universe we have free will. So I chose to believe I can clean my equipment but will need a bit more effort than normal. Bleach baths in my future.

Thanks.