Cleaning out the HLT after Brew Day

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Hi all

I am planning on a serious upgrade to my brewery, the result of which will be that I won't be able to move my HLT easily any more as it will be quite high up in the garage.

After completing a brew day and rinsing everything through with clean water I will end up with some water in the HLT's dead space that I probably don't want to leave there for a fortnight until the next Brew Day.

Do I need to completely empty the HLT as I do now, or will I be OK leaving some water in there. If I need to empty it completely I presume a Wet n Dry vac will be the best thing to use. I may even use it for the Mash Tun as well.

Thanks

[Kev888]

Sounds exciting, Steve, hope you're going to post lots of pictures as you go!

I've got a similar issue, and one of the things I've discovered is that being out in the cold garage in winter things don't dry out nicely, in fact the opposite as metal tanks seem to cause condensation in some circimstances and actually gain liquid even if you dried them. I'm not sure if my solution will work for you but i've started inverting it after brew days to let anything run out and get it to dry as much as the climate allows.

That said, its something I've only started recently - I don't know if I was just lucky before that but there was always some water left in the HLT and I didn't seem to get any nasty looking stuff in it. I always give it a thorough flushing through before filling with brewing liquor though, and it only ever has clean water in it (and the odd bit of water treatment). But like you I was concerned, not greatly with it being pre-boil but it didn't seem ideal.

I use a wet and dry vac for the boiler and that works well, seems largely dry afterwards, though there can still be the condensation as it sits in the garage later. That should be great for the HLT if you have enough access, but if you use it for the MT or anything organic it'll be yet another thing to clean. i neglected to do more than wash the vac hose through after last brew day and this was the result..

I'm not sure this reply has been very helpful really, its still a bit of a work in progress on this kind of thing unfortunately.

Cheers
kev

[GrowlingDogBeer]

There will be loads of pictures once I have decided on exactly what I am aiming for.

I may be able to turn things over, all depends how I plumb in my HLT, I was planning to connect it to the Hot Water out of the Combi Boiler with copper pipe and an inline tap to remove my ever bursting hose pipe.

The fact it is pre boil I suppose means it shouldn't be too much of a problem, I never wash my kettle out after all. I could just rinse the whole lot out before I do a brew. I'm not sure I'll get too much condensation as my garage is integral so doesn't get too cold, all depends how damp it is after a brew day, must get the steam extraction fianlly sorted.

I suppose a manky vacuum is only equivalent to whats down the plug hole in the sink so probably not too much of a problem, your not drinking from it afer all.

As for the brewery upgrade initially it was just going to be increase my boiler and HLT up to 50 Litre stainless pots so I could easily do a 25 Litre Brew Length, without having to top up the HLT and watch the boiler like a Hawk to prevent boilovers etc...

Then I realised with what I was spending, and with the likelihood that one day I will move to cornies means I really should be looking to be able to brew 40 Litres at a time. So I suppose I need to be looking at a 60 Litre HLT and Boiler, and a larger Mash Tun. It's more money, but probably a worthwhile investment.

I don't want to build another brewery, then in a years time decide it's not big enough and have to start again.

Lots of planning, but once I get started there will be loads of piccies.

[Kev888]

Excellent stuff. Yes, cornies have a lot to answer for, they were partly behind my upgrade too - 5L less doesn't seem 'that' much but its in the wrong direction for the same amount of effort!

I agree hoses are a pain; mine seem to freeze, grow stuff and trip me up rather than split - perhaps they're saving that one up for me. I hadn't truly appreciated how much more faffing about there would be in brewing away from the services and out in the cold (I've still not fully resolved the condensation problems either). So on ballance permanent plumbing may be more important than dregs in the pre-boil HLT tank - I guess if it turns out otherwise probably a bit of thin bleach or something will sort that anyway.

Just thinking about it though, I realised you generally don't see problems with the cold water tanks in lofts either, which are in much the same sort of conditions.

Cheers
kev

[boingy]

I guess the thing to do is to leave the remaining water in there and see how it looks and smells on your next brewday. I suspect just a quick rinse before you fill it each time will be fine. Even if it was sitting completely dry it would still attract dust, spiders and stuff so it would still need a rinse before use.

[Shadowknight]

After seeing what happened to my coffee machine after only a couple of weeks leaving droplets of water in the tanks, I wouldn't want that in my beer. Looked and smelled okay, but there was a film of mould on there you would miss against a shiny surface.

Would it be a lot of work/effort/not worth it to have some sort of tilt on the HLT with a drain plug?