Cleaning HLT following use of minerals?

GLRRA47 · Joined: 20 Dec 2015 Posts: 43 Location: Ohio

I use RO water for all brewing water and target water profiles based on beer type / region - adding minerals to the RO. (At times my brew water is a bit cloudy with additives.) I'm about to use my new 50A brewery tomorrow for the first time and wondered if there's any special cleaning of the HLT tank or HLT elements needed following use of various brewing trace elements.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 4:24 am Post subject:

I wouldn't concern myself too much with it. If you added things to the water to make the water be like the water from a different region, then it would be similar to someone using the exact same setup with water from their region as is. As such they wouldn't be doing anything special to wash or rinse their HLT as it would have only had "water" in it.

If you have any concerns however, you may certainly clean/rinse the HLT.

Kal

GLRRA47 · Joined: 20 Dec 2015 Posts: 43 Location: Ohio

First brew day on the new system went well. The 50A system with two 5500 watt elements in both the 20 gal. HLT and 20 gal. boil kettle really heat FAST. Learning the system and the next run will be much faster. All in all - hit my numbers and got what I wanted. I've never used a counter current chiller before and was absolutely amazed at how well it worked. (Helped that my pond water (feeds the house water supply) is REALLY cold now in Ohio.) Had to reduce to a trickle of chilling water to keep the wort flowing out in the 60's. I ended up rinsing the HLT Need to coordinate my cleaning of the mash kettle and boil kettle so as not doing it all at the end.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:59 am Post subject:

Excellent! Glad to hear the brew day was a success!

Kal

Squid · Joined: 09 Apr 2016 Posts: 33

GLRRA47, When you added minerals, did you wind up with powdery calcium on the walls and bottom? I just installed an RO system tonight and plan to brew on Wednesday, but would like to clean out the powder which I assume is calcium deposits from my very hard well water. Did you clean out your HLT and if so what did you use? I'm not keen on putting CLR in, so was thinking a diluted solution of vinegar? Any suggestions?

GLRRA47 · Joined: 20 Dec 2015 Posts: 43 Location: Ohio

Squid - My well is crazy hard - over 100 grain and contains sulfur. Why I use pond water and RO. For my brew - I added a combination of Epsom salt, baking soda, calcium chloride and chalk to RO for this batch. (Targeting Denver water per Beer Smith DI water) I usually get somewhat cloudy water as a result as it doesn't all dissolve - especially the chalk. Needless to say, my pH was quite low throughout the brew - per strips anyway. I didn't have much trouble with deposits with the brew. Simply rinsed and wiped around on everything with a long handled kitchen scrub brush while rinsing. (Nylon bristles) If needed, I'd probably try Barkeepers friend in warm water - followed by a good rinse and brush-out and rinse again before using CLR.