5 TIME-SAVING TOOLS FOR CLEANING & SANITIZING YOUR BREWING EQUIPMENT
What’s up fellow brewers! If you’re new to home brewing with a kit, welcome. The first and most important thing you need to learn about brewing, in general, is cleanliness.
The ancients were right in their thinking, and the same rings true with brewing, and that is cleanliness is next to godliness. Well, that is not completely true, but when it comes to brewing it’s pretty darn close.
Why? Because you want your beer to taste the best and how you want it to according to the specific taste you are aiming for. Contamination will shipwreck that dream for you. Not to say a sour beer is bad by any means, but the point is that you want your beer to taste like the kind of beer you are shooting to brew. The key to this is sterilization, i.e. cleanliness.
When it comes to cleaning my equipment, I am a bit over the top. I am sure you could get by doing less, but I like to be thorough. With that, I have found ways to cut time off of my cleaning/sanitizing routine while retaining a level of cleanliness that I am comfortable with.
Here are some tips I have picked up on my own brewing process to save you some time on sterilizing your own equipment.
If you don’t already own these time-saving items, you may want to consider picking them up and shed a little time off your sanitizing process. Here are 5-time saving tools I use to clean and sterilize my brewing equipment.
*This list is not in order of importance but just a general list. Also, just a heads up to the home brewer solely using a keg, the first two or three items on my list will not be of interest to you.*
(AFFILATE WARNING GOES HERE)
1. Bottle Washing Attachment for your Sink
This thing is awesome, you guys, let me tell you. This cleaning tool will save you tons of time. For this tool, I am assuming you are using bottles to store and drink your beer. Check out this post to see more information on other options that are available for storing your homebrewed beer in.
I can’t see this cleaning tool helping you out a whole lot when it comes to using a keg, but if you are dealing with bottles then shell out the extra greenbacks and score you one of these guys.
I use second-hand glass bottles (an awesome way to save money, and in my opinion, the way to go). However, before I started I never put much thought into having to clean them. After having done it over 500 times, I have my routine down to a science.
Just think about it. To rinse, scrub, and repeat multiple times over and over can take a long time. Without this bottle washing attachment for your sink, cleaning and rinsing your bottles is going to take you at least twice as long. Not only that, but you are sure to waste tons of water. I know from experience.
This little gadget will blast your bottle clean in half the time. Another aspect to consider is water conservation. I am by no means the most environmentally conscious person on the planet nor I am I an Environmentalist. However, I do love the earth and I hold to a conviction that our Lord wants us to steward it well. All this said you can clean your bottles traditionally without this attachment, but you will use 5x the water and it will take you forever.
This little guy fixes both of those problems and it is simple. Install this attachment to whichever faucet you choose to clean your bottles with and you’re ready to save precious time and water.
Once installed, your faucet allows you to keep the water on without wasting any water at all. It stops the water flow while grabbing/placing your bottle on a drying rack or tree.
Once you have the dirty bottle you simply turn it upside down, put it over the nozzle, and press down. A strong, steady stream of water will continue to blast the dirt or soap suds out of your bottle as long as you are pressing down on the nozzle. The water then naturally runs out of the bottle due to gravity. A couple of seconds later you have a newly cleaned bottle ready for drying or scrubbing, all the while conserving lots of time and water otherwise wasted.
This bottle washing attachment for your sink is totally worth whatever you will pay for it in the long run.
*After you install this attachment, beware! When you turn on the tap for the first time, it is going to shoot water out of the nozzle. After that, water doesn’t come out unless you press down on the nozzle. I always forget and it has shot me right in the face multiple times.*
2. A Bottle Sanitizing Pump
You have to sanitize your bottles. Don’t take a chance of contaminating your newly brewed beer with a kit. It’s halfway done and it is going to be so so tasty.
Again, a bottle sanitizing pump is going to only really benefit those brewers who have chosen to use bottles to store and drink their beer from. This tool works for both plastic or glass bottles but is not going to do anything for the brewer who has chosen to exclusively go with a keg system (by the way if that is you, great job! I am stoked for you).
I bought this cleaning tool at the beginning of my brewing journey so I have no idea what in the world a home brewer would do without it. I can only imagine that any other solution is most likely going to be messier and take way more time.
I don’t want you to have to experience either more messes to clean up or time wasted, so I really can’t recommend this tool enough.
It’s so easy to use and sanitizing your bottle is a breeze with this bad boy. That is why this cleaning tool rocks!
The first thing you’re gonna want to do is clean your bottles (preferably using the bottle washing attachment for your sink). Then, you’re going to make up your sanitizing solution.
Next, fill up your sanitizer pump with your sanitizing solution. With this handy tool just grab a clean bottle, flip it upside-down, and pump it 4-5 times with this tool. Hang it up on your bottle drying tree and you have your sterilized bottle ready to be filled with your own tasty home brew.
3. A Bottle Drying Tree
Again not going to be a much help with a keg, depending on the size of your keg. I mostly use bottles but I store 5 liters of my beer in kegs. I do actually use this tool to dry out my kegs as well.
This thing is worth its weight in gold! Every batch of beer I brew I use this piece of cleaning equipment at least twice. Seriously I have no idea how I could do it without my bottle drying tree. Not only can you hang up your bottles after you wash them and let them hang out to dry, but you can also pull them off, sanitize them, and hang them right back up until you’re ready for bottling.
Check out this post on my beer brewing routine to see just how much I use this tool.
I really love the bottle drying tree because of the time and space it saves. The more you homebrew with a kit, the more you’ll realize just how valuable time and space actually are.
I regularly use 50cl bottles and on average I use 45-55 each time I brew. Even when I store 5 liters in a keg I still use about 30-40 bottles. That can end up taking up a lot of space to store. Space, unfortunately, I don’t have. I have two kids under 4 and I need as much space as I can get right now.
This bottle drying tree allows you to dry/store up to 80 bottles vertically at a time in way smaller of a space than storing them any other way. I love to brew different beers but with that, there comes a need for a place to store those beers. This combined with acquiring more equipment, space in your house will become more valuable.Save time throughout your whole brewing routine and valuable space in your house with this one helpful brewing tool. The bottle drying tree.
4. A Gallon Jug, a Funnel, and a Big Bowl.
These are all small and inexpensive so here is a 3 for 1.
A Gallon Jug and a funnel
Why waste any more money than you need to? Extend the life of sanitizing solution by reusing it multiple times. Grab a gallon jug and a funnel. Once you are done using your solution for sanitizing, pour it back into your gallon jug and keep it for the next time.
This solution is good for multiple uses. For example, once you have used it to sanitize your bottles, pour it back into the jug until bottling day.
A Big Bowl
In addition, keep a big bowl handy. I cannot tell you how much time I have saved, and how many messes I have avoided to clean up because of this super inexpensive cleaning tool.
This big bowl is useful for cleaning and sanitizing and for brewing as well. The first time I ever brewed I hadn’t had this idea yet and it was a disaster. My beer was everywhere. That is just part of the learning curve but this tool has helped a ton in the process.
Pour that same used sanitizing solution in the big bowl and throw in your auto siphon, brew paddle, measuring cup, really whatever need be, and you’ll be sanitizing your equipment in a contained area.
When your finished go ahead and check your solution to see if it’s dirty. If not, pour your solution back into your jug using your funnel. If it is dirty, oh well, I’d say you got your money’s worth out of it already.
5. A Three or Five-Gallon Bucket
You are going to be cleaning a lot of equipment. As I have mentioned, I use used bottles for my homebrew from kits. This means I have had to clean a lot of bottles.The most enjoyable way I have found to do this is filling a 3.5 or 5-gallon bucket up with hot water and cleaning solution.
**Make sure this is a separate bucket other than your brewing bucket (fermentor).**
Then I take the bucket outside, throw on a podcast, and chill out in the yard watching the world go by while cleaning my bottles. This can of course also be helpful for cleaning your keg(s).
It’s really relaxing to sit in the sun and wash, scrub and rise out the bottles in a place you don’t have to worry about spilling anything anywhere. Clean up is a flash so grab your bottles, your bucket, scrub brush, and your shades. Head on out to the yard and clean you some bottles for your home brewed beer.
Small Changes/ Big Rewards
Hope these tips and insights from my own cleaning experiences will help you to further perfect your own cleaning routine.
Really once you have it down, it becomes second nature. It’s not as hard as it might seem before or at the beginning or your brewing journey.
Remember, small tweaks in your routine can have big payoffs when it comes to saving time. Until next time remember,