25 replies to this topic

[denny]

For beerstone though, it seems like an acid would work better. Have you used the alkaline cleaner on beerstone with good results too?

 

Nope, don't think so.

[Genesee Ted]

Alkaline cleaners won't touch stone. Gotta be acid. I'm not sure if Acid #6 is available to homebrewers, but that would clean up the fittings. Better wear gloves though. The hot side tubing, no worries about the staining.

[matt6150]

I picked up Sani-clean last night. I will let it run tomorrow while I work on other projects and see how it goes.

[gnef]

Well, I've done one cleaning cycle so far, and the silicone tubing is still stained, though it does seem lighter. I did a PBW recirculation before, and got a lot of organic gunk out (I haven't run PBW through these lines in a long time), rinsed, and then did saniclean at 2 oz per gallon, heated to 130F, recirculated while heating, and then another 15 minutes at 130F, and an overnight soak.

 

After that, I did another rinse, and another PBW cycle, heated up higher, recirculated for 15 minutes, and then left overnight. I will rinse that out, and then do another saniclean cycle, but even if that doesn't get rid of the staining, I'm going to leave it. I'll check the stainless camlock fittings to see if all the beerstone is gone, and if it is, I'll be pretty happy.

 

I should definitely do a cleaning regimen like this more often though, just to make sure everything is clean.

 

I had another idea though too. I was doing my cleaning for my espresso machine (descaling and backflushing), and realized that I have a big container of Dezcal descaler. I wonder how well that would work on beerstone?

[bigdaddyale]

Looks like the active ingredient is citrus acid

https://www.cw-usa.c...dezcal-msds.pdf

[gnef]

Looks like the active ingredient is citrus acid

https://www.cw-usa.c...dezcal-msds.pdf

Hm, I wonder how effective that would be on beerstone, and what concentrations would be required?