Cleaning Demijohns?

BeardedMag · Oct 13, 2017

Alright everyone,

Just after some advice, I'm planning on doing an IPA kit I got bought for me but want to make it with a twist. I am planning on making the 23 litre as per normal then for dry hopping I'm going to split it between demijohns, some will have fruit/hops in etc and was wondering before I ruin some perfectly decent glass demijohns how the hell am I meant to get the fruit and sludge (technical term) out after?

Might sounds a daft question but I had my head turned to soup at college yesterday and need all the Help I can get hahaha!

Cheers in advance

Dexter101 · Oct 13, 2017

I've been using some of the cheap plastic DJ and as long as you clean them out as soon as you have removed the beer or wine they seem to clean up really well. I just put in some VWP slosh about and leave for a few minutes and then rinse out well.

BeardedMag · Oct 13, 2017

Champion

Dexter101 said:
I've been using some of the cheap plastic DJ and as long as you clean them out as soon as you have removed the beer or wine they seem to clean up really well. I just put in some VWP slosh about and leave for a few minutes and then rinse out well.

henteaser · Oct 13, 2017

If your demijohns are glass, use bleach. It's great on glass. If you have a bottle brush, give that a good poke around in there too.

A soak over night with 1 part bleach to 10 parts water solution will dissolve krausen, scum, weird yeast from the fruit etc. then a thorough rinse with fresh water the next day.

It'll be as clean as a whistle.

BeardedMag · Oct 13, 2017

Sounds like a plan :) Thanks for the advice

henteaser said:
If your demijohns are glass, use bleach. It's great on glass. If you have a bottle brush, give that a good poke around in there too.

A soak over night with 1 part bleach to 10 parts water solution will dissolve krausen, scum, weird yeast from the fruit etc. then a thorough rinse with fresh water the next day.

It'll be as clean as a whistle.

Pavros · Oct 13, 2017

If you buy supermarket bottled water, you can re-use the 5 litre bottles as demijohns. Just put a hole in the lid for the airlock. You can always throw them out after use if you can't get them clean.

I suppose you could also use them without the lid and just put a sanitised cloth over the top instead.