Can you use laundry bleach to clean pressure barrels?

[jceg316]

I have two dirty pressure barrels and need to clean them, but the only bleach I have is laundry bleach. Will this clean out my PBs the same way other bleach will?

Thanks.

 

[MrRook]

If you use any bleach you have to be extreme in your rinsing afterwards.

 

[Wouter]

Or just use soap and hot water .

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I was advised to avoid detergents like washing-up liquid when cleaning brewing equipment.
I use Wizz Oxy from B&M and Home Bargains to clean.
It seems unusual to me to use bleach to clean; it's more often used as a sanitiser.

 

[Spapro]

I use the oxy clean stuff (white powder in the laundry aisle) from either Wilkos or Morrisons on my PB's. Remove any easy to budge sludge and then pop a scoop of oxy clean powder in and fill with hot water and leave for an hour, most of the crud will be gone and the rest should clean off reasonably easy. Good rinse, and rinse again and then good to go.

If buying the oxy stuff I read is worth avoiding the stuff with coloured particles in it and just buy the cheapest, white powder you can find.

 

[jceg316]

Thanks. I usually use bleach to clean as they get really dirty and I forget about them and leave them outside for long periods of time. I need to use one as a bottling bucket and another as a secondary.

I think this laundry bleach should work if oxy is also laundry bleach.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Oxy cleaning products are not bleach - they are based on sodium percarbonate.

 

[Wouter]

I use "bleach" a lot to clean my brewing equipment.
But not the kind you use in toilets, I would not want all the extra **** thats in there near my stuff.

I use chemipro caustic. Which is basically NaOH pellets with a substance to generate active chlorides.
Cleans extremely well, way way way better than oxy products. But also more dangerous and polluting. You have to rinse very carefully though! Remaining chloride in the beer is awful. This stuff doesn't just degrade into water such as oxy.

This stuff even seems to clean out beerstone.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @Wouter
I use the cheapest bleach that I can find to make a no-rinse steriliser - there's nothing wrong with cheap bleach. What "extra ****" are you referring to?

 

[Clint]

Mine get pure oxi then starsan.

 

[jceg316]

Is this the oxy stuff? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002SPDPEI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[terrym]

I use Poundshop oxy stuff to soak, thin (5%) bleach if I need to keep PBs sweet after cleaning during storage plus my water bath gets a splash to inhibit green stuff, VWP to clean bottles, and Starsan in a spray bottle for sanitising.

 

[Thumper]

I wash with hot water and a clean cloth, and sanitise with Miltons. Both bottles and FV. No infections so far!

 

[Drunkula]

Hi @Wouter
I use the cheapest bleach that I can find to make a no-rinse steriliser - there's nothing wrong with cheap bleach. What "extra ****" are you referring to?

Stuff like you get in thick bleach, like surfactants or cherry stink.

Sometimes when I've bought thin bleach to make no-rinse I've had it definitely not be thin bleach, even the same bottle from the same shop. When my Asda bottle of thin bleach ran out I got another one from there and found it had changed. If you put some in water in a bottle and shake it and there's foam you know it's got the extra cack in it you don't want. I then went and got a bottle from Morrisons and it was exactly the same. You can see it's a deeper colour and more oily if you swirl the bottle.

Don't know if it's because they do different runs of bleach in the factory and it was the end-mix or what. I ended up paying for it because that crap clearly wasn't no-rinse at all and I ended up with tons of beer that tasted like vinyl before I found out what was causing it. So be careful when you run out and do a test.

Some laundry bleach is oxiclean based.

 

[Wouter]

Hi @Wouter
I use the cheapest bleach that I can find to make a no-rinse steriliser - there's nothing wrong with cheap bleach. What "extra ****" are you referring to?

Really depends. I have no idea what they sell in the UK.
Here it is usually a dense liquid for instance. So there is something in there to do that. Often parfumed.

But if you can just find a pure NaOH solution, that would be great. Though it might be cheaper to just buy some NaOH pellets.

Edit: Oops didn't see Drunkula's post. :)

 

[jceg316]

What would be really useful is if people could post links to what they use to clean pressure barrels.

I found some laundry bleach powder and have left my kegs to soak. It's supposed to be environmentally friendly so I'll see how well it does. I have a lot of green mould growing in them I need to get rid of.

 

[Wouter]

What would be really useful is if people could post links to what they use to clean pressure barrels.

I found some laundry bleach powder and have left my kegs to soak. It's supposed to be environmentally friendly so I'll see how well it does. I have a lot of green mould growing in them I need to get rid of.

General cleaning: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N3UBHUD/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Intensive cleaning: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06Y5N7PSG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Sanitising: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0064O7Y64/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Don't buy from the links I gave you, too expensive as far as I know. But I don't buy mine in the UK, I don't know any UK brewing shops.

Here the costs are approximately:
General cleaning: 16 euro for 5kg of a knock off brand
Intensive cleaning: 9 euro for 1kg (you need less of this stuff) of a knock off brand
Sanitising: 26,50 euro for 946 ml of Five Star Starsan

 

[-Bezza-]

For heavy soiling, I wonder whether you could get some stainless steel bearings and swoosh those around the barrel along with some oxyclean to remove the crud?

 

[Wouter]

For heavy soiling, I wonder whether you could get some stainless steel bearings and swoosh those around the barrel along with some oxyclean to remove the crud?

Never do this.
Never use anything but a microfiber cloth to remove any filth if you are cleaning a plastic barrel.
If you use metal in it you will get scratches in the surface. These scratches are excellent places for bacteria to nestle in. And because they are scratches you can't really "get" to them with a cloth anymore.

But anyway, its not really neccesary. After your done bottling, just shoot in some water. Swoosh around to remove 99% of all gunk and throw it out. Fill it up with oxyclean and then use a cloth to clean the barrel. Drain, rinse (or not), and dry.
I've never had any gunk that wasn't removed easily with a cloth, I always clean the barrel within a few hours of bottling.

 

[jceg316]

General cleaning: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N3UBHUD/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Intensive cleaning: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06Y5N7PSG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Sanitising: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0064O7Y64/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Don't buy from the links I gave you, too expensive as far as I know. But I don't buy mine in the UK, I don't know any UK brewing shops.

Here the costs are approximately:
General cleaning: 16 euro for 5kg of a knock off brand
Intensive cleaning: 9 euro for 1kg (you need less of this stuff) of a knock off brand
Sanitising: 26,50 euro for 946 ml of Five Star Starsan

thanks that has been really useful. I emptied one pressure barrel after soaking for a few hours and there is still algae there. I will leave the other one over night to see if a longer soak helps, but it probably won't and I will need to get something for intensive cleaning.