Boring? Yes. Essential? 'Fraid so. Cleaning and sanitising are the two most important things you can do to make your beer taste good. It just doesn't make for catchy headlines

A really interesting article about cleaning*

Yeast is king. It’s what is making your beer. We love it, and we want it to be happy. We don’t want to upset it in any way. We don’t want anything to compete with it, and nothing can stop it. Yeast is our master, and we shall obey it. If we don’t follow its orders, it’ll either give up fermenting or let something take over, like bacteria. We don’t want that. So we clean, vigorously, and sanitise, often.

You must clean well everything that your beer may come in contact with, and just before use, you must sanitise this equipment as well (except the brew kettle). A surface cannot be sanitised until it is clean. If something does not look or smell clean, it probably isn’t.

CLEANING

Cleaning chemicals are very potent, often alkaline chemicals which remove organic deposits. These cleaners need to be thoroughly rinsed after use (unless noted otherwise). Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) is our favourite.

SANITISING

All equipment needs to be fully immersed in a sanitising solution for a certain amount of time to reduce the number of microorganisms. Star San, our preferred sanitiser, for example, needs one minute. All unboiled water is a potential source of contamination in fermentations. Rinsing can cause infection, so it is important to use cleaning chemicals designated ‘No Rinse’ or ‘Final Rinse’ – examples include Star San and One Step. These are very effective against bacteria, but harmless to beer and people when used as directed. Brewers often fill a trigger spray bottle with sanitiser for quick cleaning.

* We didn't do too badly all things considered?

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