The Importance Of Cleanliness In Your Homebrew System
As a homebrewer, you’re always testing and trying out new recipes and styles of beer. Some turn out great, and are a real hit with family and friends, while others suds are a total dud. In the everlasting quest to make the perfect beer, some homebrewers fail to keep their small batch brewing setup clean. This is one of the most overlooked parts of the homebrew experience, and proper cleaning of your homebrew system can sometimes make or break a beer.
Bräu Supply wants every batch of beer you make to be the best one yet. That’s why we created the UniBräu small batch brewing system. Every step of the homebrew process occurs within the system, making clean up easy. Read on to learn more about the importance of cleanliness in your homebrew system.
Clean VS Sanitize
For many, cleaning their homebrew system might mean scrubbing it down with some dish soap and a sponge and calling it clean. We won’t go into how wrong that is because it would take up an entire blog in and of itself. Instead, let’s start our discussion of cleanliness by defining the difference between clean and sanitize.
Cleaning your small batch brewing system means washing away all of the leftover grains, hops, and yeast leftover from your last batch of beer. Generally, by using a homebrew safe cleaner and warm water, you can clean out your homebrew kit with relative ease. For most parts of the homebrew process, simply cleaning the equipment is enough. But for others, it’s important to sanitize the equipment. Sanitizing is the process of killing the remaining microorganisms that remain in and on your homebrew gear after they’ve been cleaned.
Why It Matters
Cleaning and sanitizing your homebrew gear is important because it is one of the easiest ways to ensure your beer’s quality between small batches. When you don’t clean and sanitize your homebrew gear, your beer might be exposed to microorganisms that can rapidly skunk your beer.
Some common bugs that can burst your beer bubble include Lactobacillus. This creature can leave your beer tasting sour (but not in a good way) because of the lactic acid it produces after eating the yeast and sugar in your beer. Other creepy creatures like Pediococcus leave mysterious rope-like bits growing in your beer.
Simply put, by not properly cleaning and sanitizing your homebrewing equipment, you’re setting yourself up for failure. If you clean but don’t sanitize, you open your beer up for bacteria to fester and infect your beer. If you sanitize but don’t clean, you might have leftover sediments and yeast in your new batch of beer that clouds its color and character. No one likes bad beer. Clean and sanitize your homebrew equipment!
Bräu Supply
Keep your homebrew setup clean with our all-in-one small batch brewing system. Because it does it all in one device, you don’t have to worry about cleaning up dozens of individual parts. Simplify your homebrew cleanup, and spend less time cleaning and sanitizing and more time brewing. With Bräu Supply, you can enjoy the small batch brewing experience to its fullest.
More articles how to brew beer
The ultimate guide to Kveik yeast: Unleashing it's fermentation potential
Revolutionizing home brewing: The simplified art of no sparge brewing
Exploring amber ales: A guide with a twist on the traditional recipe
Mastering cold crashing: Enhancing beer clarity and accelerating the aging process
What is the basic function of the fermenter?
What causes a fermenter to heat up?
The art of lagering: A guide to perfecting the cold conditioning process
Troubleshooting fermentation problems in brewing: A comprehensive guide