Cleaning the BD conical

[Tricounty]

I know I am new here and I tried to do a search but could not find what I was looking for.
Anyway,
I was wondering do you folks take the spigot out to clean the fermentor every time you get finished with a batch?
Or do you just soak it in PBW overnight and start another batch?
Thanks for the help , there are a few things to learn when starting a new hobby.

[RickBeer]

Always remove and disassemble spigot.

[LouieMacGoo]

I usually remove and disassemble the spigot, run warm water through it and then soak it in One Step or Oxyclean solution.

[bpgreen]

I used to clean and soak the LBK (Little Brown Keg) in Oxiclean and run the Oxiclean through the spigot, but then somebody (yankeedag?) posted a picture of what can happen inside a spigot if it's not disassembled (lots of ugliness in that picture). Since then, no matter whether it's the LBK, the LBC, or some other fermenter, I tear everything down as much as possible and clean each piece (I've got a reminder of why it's necessary to do that from one small piece of equipment where I got careless and it's now black instead of clear).

[Tricounty]

Thanks for the input.
I did not know how crazy to go with the cleaning.

Do you do the same with the valve on the brew kettle?

[Whamolagan]

Do you chill in the kettle? If so then I would, that would be the first place infection would start. If you have a stainless kettle, you could also put some water with PBW in there and bring it up to 150-160* for 20 minutes and then drain it through the valve. Then rinse all with hot tap water. Then you would only need to take it apart only a few times a year. The plastic ones are so easy to take apart you might as well do it every time you clean up from brewing.
If you have the space, get a couple of 5 gallon buckets and you can store the PBW and reuse it to clean everything you got. All plastic is permeable, so once an infection sets in, you can never get rid of it.

That's when you upgrade. I learned the hard way, I had 8 LBKs going at all times. I got one infection and it was like a slow death as it spread from LBKs to bottles. In one fail swoop, I went from 9 LBKs to 3 6 glass gallon carboys, and then to kegging. Point is, you can never be too clean. I have had 2 infections in the close to 8 years of brewing (I have had many many other setbacks) and both of those were me cutting corners on cleaning.

Wort gets everywhere and is super prone to growing things.

[BlackDuck]

Whamo said it all in one short sentence....you can never be too clean.

That is sound advice.


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