How Do You Clean Your Grainfather

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

R-J-M

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2016
Messages
122
Reaction score
8
Hi All :)

I have recently purchased the new Grainfather and Connect Box. I did my first brew last night and it went really well! Question is, how do people clean their 'all in one' systems. I didn't have any cleaner/steriliser to hand, so I rinsed all the crud off with a hose pipe, then filled the GF with water at 80C and pumped it through all the pipes and dried it down.[/SIZE]

Can anyone recommend a decent cleaner? and will I need to sanitise it all again after cleaning when it comes to another brew day? (im used to swilling out a plastic FB with soapy water, but I want to look after this shiny kit!)

Thanks in advance.
 
Thought Grainfather themselves sold a cleaner specifically for use with it? I'd buy a tub of that then maybe see if it has ingredients on it and see if you can buy/make something similar for when that runs out or stick with the official stuff. That said I'm sure some actual GF users will be along in a minute to advise otherwise!
 
R-J-M said:
Hi All :)

I have recently purchased the new Grainfather and Connect Box. I did my first brew last night and it went really well! Question is, how do people clean their 'all in one' systems. I didn't have any cleaner/steriliser to hand, so I rinsed all the crud off with a hose pipe, then filled the GF with water at 80C and pumped it through all the pipes and dried it down.[/SIZE]

Can anyone recommend a decent cleaner? and will I need to sanitise it all again after cleaning when it comes to another brew day? (im used to swilling out a plastic FB with soapy water, but I want to look after this shiny kit!)

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

If you are using the CF chiller then when its pumping out into a FV thru it place a second FV to catch the water coming from the hot side of the CF chiller, this will give you 20-30l of hot water, once you have rinsed the crud out of the GF then tip in the hot water from the 2nd FV that you have saved and use it for the clean.

You can use the GF cleaner though its expensive but iirc they recommend also using PBW, i just use plain sodium percarbonate which is left to steep for a while as well as be pumped thru, you can just fire any other stuff into the GF when it's going thru the clean. 50c or thereabouts should be more than hot enough for any of those cleaners to work well, i would give anything a light rub with a kitchen sponge to help it clean a bit quicker.
 
chewie said:
If you are using the CF chiller then when its pumping out into a FV thru it place a second FV to catch the water coming from the hot side of the CF chiller, this will give you 20-30l of hot water, once you have rinsed the crud out of the GF then tip in the hot water from the 2nd FV that you have saved and use it for the clean.

You can use the GF cleaner though its expensive but iirc they recommend also using PBW, i just use plain sodium percarbonate which is left to steep for a while as well as be pumped thru, you can just fire any other stuff into the GF when it's going thru the clean. 50c or thereabouts should be more than hot enough for any of those cleaners to work well, i would give anything a light rub with a kitchen sponge to help it clean a bit quicker.
Click to expand...

Excellent cheers, using a 2nd FV to catch the hot water is a very good idea! I shoved the red hose straight down the sink last night :doh: Just ordered some genuine GF cleaner, I feel like she only deserves the best :lol: It recommends to use 2 Tablespoons mixed with 15L of hot water and pump round then out for 15 minutes. As a guestimate, 2 Tablespoons would be roughly 30g, its a 500g tub, so it should give me 16 cleans (Brewing twice a month, should last me 8 months) the £9.95 seams worth it now.

cheers for the tips!
 
I use the GF cleaner but wash the mash tube and other bits in a flexi tub with oxy during the boil.
Warm water I collect just goes back into the GF for the rinse.
 
R-J-M said:
As a guestimate, 2 Tablespoons would be roughly 30g, its a 500g tub, so it should give me 16 cleans (Brewing twice a month, should last me 8 months) the �£9.95 seams worth it now.

cheers for the tips!
Click to expand...

5kg of sodium percarbonate is about £20 if bought one 5kg tub at a time and will work out a lot cheaper than branded cleaner, it is the active ingredient that is found in some of the proprietary cleaners like PBW, i can't say exactly if the GF cleaner has percarbonate in it but its probable.
 
fwiw i use generic unscented laundry oxi used at a rate of about 1 scoop per upto 5 gallon volume of warm water as my goto brewday soak cleaner..

with the grainfather i rinse out and then recirculate a warm laundry oxi solution through the cfc before rinsing well and draining upturned until dry..

ensuring everything is bone dry and moisture free before packing up is CRUCIAL..
 

Similar threads

Manxnorton
Brewing with 2 GrainFather G30’s-How Would you use them?
2 3
Replies
59
Views
2K
Manxnorton
Manxnorton
YeastFace
Stainless pitting in G40
Replies
8
Views
612
MashBag
MashBag
shd
Cleaning products and regime
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
Chippy_Tea
Chippy_Tea
Ross1974
Grainfather S40 Leak
Replies
2
Views
386
Ross1974
Ross1974
GuyG
Double Brew Day Cleaning
Replies
3
Views
457
MashBag
MashBag

Latest posts

Back
Top