Cleaning and Sterilising
This is a very important step, for all the equipment you’re going to use. If you don’t get this right, then the rest of the process becomes a waste of time and effort, because the end result could be ‘tainted’, or just won’t taste right, or, even worse, infected. Also, it is important to do both – clean the equipment (especially when used for previous brews) using a proprietary cleaning agent and scrubbing brush, then sterilise it ready for use. For cleaning I use VWP, and for sterilising I use Suresan, although there are plenty of alternatives out there for both. I have to admit, I’ve always put a lot of effort into this step, as I could not bear the thought of going through the brewing process, only to discover later that the equipment wasn’t clean enough. Consequently I’ve never had any such problems. There is no going back when you discover that the beer tastes wrong, and the whole lot needs to go down the drain!
Note that VWP claims to be a cleaner and steriliser. Despite this, I prefer to be thorough and sterilise in addition to using VWP.
As it’s quite time consuming, I always do my cleaning and sterilising the day before I brew. I also fill my mash tun and sparge water heater with the required amounts of water, so that first thing in the morning on a brew day I can switch on the mash heater and get started straight away.