Blow Off Tube Tip

[mmmBeer...]

My dad came up to visit the family this week (he also brought me up some supplies I can’t find here!), and we decided to brew up a couple of batches. I started using 1.5” vinyl tube as a blow off tube (works great…highly recommend it to everyone).

Anyhow the fermentation had settled down and we wanted to put on the air lock. I mentioned to my dad as I was rinsing the blow off tube that I hadn’t come up with a strategy to clean the gunk out of the tube…the smaller ones I would soak then blast with the bottle washer, but the 1.5” wouldn’t come clean.

So, my dad says, when I clean the tubes for my pond I use a big bottle brush with a coat hanger attached to it…I go duh, why didn’t I think of that, grab the carboy brush and a coat hanger, run it through the tube and viola! Very clean blow off tube!

Thanks Dad!
:D

[Tweek]

be carefull of using brushes on tubing that will come in contact with your beer. tubing is soft plastic and will scratch easy. Most food grade tubes can be boiled which will clean them out, they turn white and no longer see through, but clean.

[fuji6100]

You can also take a small nylon cord or shoestring and tie a small flag of cloth on the end of it. Then, feed the string through the tube (like a pipe snake) and pull the cloth flag through when the string starts coming outof the other end. Works for me, and I even dip my cloth piece in some sanitizer or bleach solution.

[p.d.]

Williams carries a blowoff tube brush.It is about 4' long and is quite cheap to buy.