Anna's Brewdays

Lovely to hear from you again. I’m sure the Dubbel rejects will help take the edge off your canning trials.
I’m envious of your chosen homeland and I’m well overdue a trip to Scotland.
Cheers from a fellow Celt

Hi all

You know that feeling when you've left it too long to get in touch with a friend and then it feels awkward sending that 'Hi' text.... yep right there with this. Ok I've still been brewing but super busy with the newish job, which means timing brew days around being in Orkney half the month and working in the hospital when back down South. I'm also still baking lots, making sourdough bread, and even went along to Orkney 'Rockfest' which was a bit umm different.

Today though was cleaning the brew space...again.. sheesh. Since taking up the MSc course I'm a bit paranoid about cleaning. Everything gets a caustic wash then water, then acid. I've cleared out 3 kegs to make space for the lager that I made a few weeks ago. It's not quite as clear as I'd like but tastes pretty good given it was a bit of a spur of the moment yes I'm sure I've some hops that will do the job in the freezer. I'm keeping the lid on these days for the first 45 min of the boil since DMS is far more volatile than I think most people realise, and for a lager the main difficulty is actually keeping some in rather than worrying about it all being boiled off. My cooling set up still feels a bit Heath Robinson and I'm wondering about investing in a proper plate chiller.


I've realise my perfect brew space would be seamless waterproof and be able to be dowsed ceiling to floor to clean and preferably be able to take a peroxide vapour sterilisation overnight. I really am struggling a bit with mess, disorganisation. ... and stuff like bikes and recycling that are invading the brew space again .

What do you use for the caustic wash? (I have a feeling I'm going to look like an ***** here when you say "er, caustic soda?" but I thought I'd ask

marshbrewer said:

What do you use for the caustic wash? (I have a feeling I'm going to look like an ***** here when you say "er, caustic soda?" but I thought I'd ask

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https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/annas-brewdays.89471/page-50#post-1277511

It’s an alkali cleaner. I use it in a submersible pump to clean the kegs and fermenters. It’s nasty stuff.

Hey welcome back Anna

marshbrewer said:

What do you use for the caustic wash? (I have a feeling I'm going to look like an ***** here when you say "er, caustic soda?" but I thought I'd ask

Click to expand...

Lots of breweries do use caustic soda for cleaning.