How to clean the Unibrau system
Clean the Unibräu straight after brew day: scrub, recirculate hot cleaner through the pump and chiller, then rinse. The whole routine, step by step.
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The short answer: clean the system as soon as you finish brewing. Scrub out the grain residue, then fill with hot water and PBW and run it like a brew day: pump and chiller connected, 180°F (82°C) for 40 minutes. Drain, rinse twice with clean water and you’re done. The same routine works for all our systems.
| Step | What to do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Scrub | Soft brush, hot water and a little unscented dish soap; rinse well | 10 min |
| 2. Recirculate cleaner | Hot water with PBW, about 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons (more for baked-on residue). Pump, tubing and chiller connected, 180°F (82°C) | 40 min |
| 3. Drain | Close the ball valve, point the return tube at the drain and pump it out | 5 min |
| 4. Rinse twice | Fill with clean water, run the pump a minute or two, pump out. Repeat | 10 min |
Everything before the boil gets sanitized by the boil itself, so you only need to sanitize the chiller and whatever touches the wort after it. The Unibräu DrainPro has a sloped floor and a bottom drain, so it empties completely.
It may not be the most exciting part of your brew day, but it is one of the most important ones: cleaning your system after you’ve finished a brew. The fact is that proper sanitation is one of the most important parts of the brewing process. Cleaning your system thoroughly will help you produce beer that is free of contaminants and off flavours.
With the Unibrau system this vital step is actually quite easy. Here’s the process you should use to clean our systems – these steps apply to all of the systems we sell, as they all operate in the same manner.
The first thing to remember is that you always want to wash your system as soon as you’ve finished your brew day. As tempting as it might be to open a beer and put your feet up once you’re done your brew, leaving the system for any length of time is going to make it harder to scrub the grain residue out of the kettle and off of the element. So get right in there with a soft, handled brush, a little bit of dish soap and some hot water. Once you’ve scrubbed it well, rinse with hot water.
Next, refill the kettle with hot water and add PBW (Pro-brewer’s wash). Add roughly 1 tablespoon of PBW per 2 gallons of hot water. Then connect all of the fittings and the pump and prepare the system as if you’re about to start another brew. Plug in the controller, and connect your chiller, too. Plug the element into the controller and set the temperature to 180°F (82°C). Then set the timer for 40 minutes – the timer won’t start to count down until the set temperature has been reached.
When the buzzer sounds, you’ll know the system is clean. Now close the ball valve, unplug the element and the pump. Disconnect the tubing from the lid and point it into your drain. Plug in the pump to drain the solution.
Now all you need to do is rinse. Fill the kettle up again, this time with cold water. Run the pump again for a minute or two and then pump out the solution. I like to do this twice to ensure all of the remnants of the PBW are out of the kettle and tubing.
Now you are ready for another brew day.
Related guides
Cleaning and sanitizing a fermenter, using and cleaning a counterflow chiller and boiling with the Unibräu.