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Tube replacement frequency
so i was inspecting my blow off tube and racking tube on saturday after racking my porter. they are both starting to become stained a burnt sienna.
how often do you all change out the tubes? i would hate to end up infecting or skunking a batch because i just didn't spend the $6 bucks to replace them both.
i know they are clean, or as clean as they will get, they get soaked and scrubbed and sanitized before and after each batch of beer. it could be the sanitizer (i use iodine) that is staining them.
either way, just looking to see if anyone has a routine schedule or life-of-tube guideline they follow.
5 years and still racking with mine. The ends will dry-rott out before the rest of it and they can be cut off. Stains won't cause infections.
Wild
I change out my racking cane tubing every 4-6 months.
all my racking and transfer tubes live in my freezer.
they are only ever brought out for 10-15 minutes at a time where they are immediately sterilized, then used to rack, rinsed and put straight back in the freezer.... as racking a several years ago i got 3 or 4 infections in a row all due to racking tubes.
if you think about it, they are the hardest object to sterilize, 6 to 10 feet of hose surface that comes in contact with your beer that you can't manually scrub or unsure cleaning agents and or heat is applied to effectively...
if in doubt, throw it out
elemenohpee wrote:
all my racking and transfer tubes live in my freezer.
they are only ever brought out for 10-15 minutes at a time where they are immediately sterilized, then used to rack, rinsed and put straight back in the freezer.... as racking a several years ago i got 3 or 4 infections in a row all due to racking tubes.
if you think about it, they are the hardest object to sterilize, 6 to 10 feet of hose surface that comes in contact with your beer that you can't manually scrub or unsure cleaning agents and or heat is applied to effectively...
if in doubt, throw it out
elemenohpee:
What do you think the freezer is doing for you? Just creating a bacterial static condition. There is probably more bacteria, mold and wild yeast in your freezer, that there than you think. Lastly storing the racking cane and tubing on a peg with the openigs facing down will keep anything out of the tubing. Its just the surface that will need to be cleaned an sanitized anew after storage.
I my brewhaus I treat my tubing this way.
I always have an extra bucket of cleanser (PBW) and sanitizer (Star San) available. I use an auto siphon, so I can pump cleanser through the whole racking setup very quickly I let it sit while I do other chores. Then I drain it, and pump the sanitizer through it, let it sit.
Everytime my beer comes in contact with the tubing I repeat the process before moving on.
Regardless, I agree. When in doubt throw it out.
I always santized my tubimg with Iodophor. Make sure you hold one end down on bottom of bucket or whatever you are putting it in and slowly wind it down till the other end is covered with solution. You'll see the air bubble travel dow nthe t ube and exit the top and you won't have any aire bubbles in it.
After using I put tubing under hot water and run water through it thourghly and then resanitize it before storing. Tubing is cheap. I now replace it every batch. I also quit using a blowoff tube and now use airlocks.
DC
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