If you’re a home brewer, you probably love shiny metal things!? You take pride in collecting quality stainless steel pots of various sizes for a myriad of uses to make your homemade beer?

Beer Stone & Limescale Deposits in Fermenters

If you’re not cleaning your stainless steeel equipment properly, you’ll end up with build-ups of beer stone and limescale. It is all but impossible to properly sanitise a fermentor with beer stone deposits on the sides. Beer stone and limescale are calcium deposits. Once you have beer stone in your stainless steel fermenters and kegs, it’ll house all sorts of bugs and contamination.

Contaminated home brew equipment will soon lead to issues with infected beers. Infected wort means lost batches, wasted time, low beer stability, off-flavours, and a low quality of your brews. That’s where a good cleaning routine and sodium percarbonate comes in.

In this blog, we’ll talk about what sodium percarbonate is, how to use it to clean your home brew equipment, and why it’s a great alternative to harsher chemicals.

Note: Here’s a quick video overview on using Sodium Percarbonate, with some keg cleaning tips.

What is Sodium Percarbonate?

Sodium percarbonate is a mix of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. It’s a very useful brewery cleaner. The active ingredient in sodium percarbonate is hydrogen peroxide. When dissolved in water, this powerful, effervescent, active cleaning solution quickly breaks down into oxygen and water. This means the spent solution is safe to run to the drain. It can even be used to clean and remove unwanted aromas in your home plumbing.

NOTE: Sodium percarbonate is cheap to buy in bulk. Places like The Malt Miller sell it cheaply in various sized packs.

Sodium percarbonate is an oxidising agent, it’s used across many brewing and household cleaning solutions, such as: PBW, OxiClean, and Vanish. It’s a granulated white powder. You use it by adding around 1 tablespoon per gallon of 40-60C hot water. Soak your equipment or recirculate the solution around your brewery, to clean your brewing kit.

NOTE: When active, it’s corrosive, and not good for your skin. As with all cleaning chemicals, it’s advised to wear suitable protective gloves, safety glasses and clothing, to protect from splashing.

How to Use Sodium Percarbonate to Clean Your Home Brew Equipment

Using sodium percarbonate to clean your home brew equipment is easy. Mix it with hot water to create a cleaning solution.

Mix 1 tablespoon of sodium percarbonate per gallon of hot water. Then, recirculate it, or soak your equipment in the solution for around 30 minutes, or longer for heavily soiled equipment. After soaking, rinse the equipment thoroughly with hot water to remove any remaining solution.

Why Use Sodium Percarbonate to Clean Your Home Brew Equipment?

Sodium percarbonate is a great alternative to harsher chemicals like bleach or caustic soda. The benefits include:

1. Effective Cleaner: Sodium percarbonate is a highly effective cleaner that removes dirt, grime, and even tough stains from your equipment.
2. Safe: Unlike harsher chemicals, sodium percarbonate is safe to use and won’t harm your skin or damage your equipment.
3. Non-Toxic: Sodium percarbonate is non-toxic and won’t leave any harmful residues on your equipment or in your beer.
4. Environmentally Friendly: Sodium percarbonate is environmentally friendly and breaks down into water, oxygen, and soda ash, making it a great choice for the eco-conscious homebrewer.

In conclusion, sodium percarbonate is a great cleaning solution for homebrewers. It’s effective, safe, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly. So the next time you need to clean your home brew equipment, give sodium percarbonate a try.