What is your process for cleaning brewing/serving tubing?

[BrewdyQuah]

As a brewer with a keg system I have a lot of tubing to keep clean. I've noticed the one that seems to need it the most is the soft, pliable, thin hose on my floating dip tube. Since it sits in the wort/beer for extended periods of time it really picks up a stain/smell.

I'm curious as to what others do as a cleaning process for all their lines.

What chemicals do you use?
Do you treat vinyl and silicone the same?
How do you clean the really stained lines?
How often do you do this?

Hopefully this can also help others with the same question. Thanks!

 

[SanPancho]

you need a regular alkaline cleaner. pbw, brewery wash, oxyclean, etc. soak them. smell will go away, but stains wont necessarily leave, especially on silicone. you can order/buy a very thin pipe cleaner at LHBS that fits most small diameter tubing, (i think mine is like 4 or 5 ft long) although you should only need that when something has sat around for a while and gets crusty inside or gunk builds up...

 

[IslandLizard]

Excellent thread!

Most of the time I use (homemade) PBW. If just soaking isn't enough, I use brushes.

I have two 3' long, 1/4" and 3/16" line (draw) brushes. Those will clean (thin) tubing and lines up to 6' long.
Also a 2' long 3/4" brush (think chem lab style) and several shorter ones of various diameters for valves, short hoses, etc.
A few brushes are tied to a string, to pull through longer lines.

The serving lines in my keezer are (still) Bev-Seal Ultra, 19' long. There's no brushing those.
They have an inner PET liner which is very smooth, not much sticks to it. But they still discolor somewhat.
https://www.ritebrew.com/product-p/843564.htm
I just recirculate hot PBW through them for an hour or so, followed by a good flush with water with some phosphoric acid added. Then recirc Iodophor and/or Starsan.