[santoch]

Cleaning bottles is the worst.  Especially if they already have labels on them,  Getting the glue off an be such a pain.

[Cliffs]

cleaning kegs. I just hate it

[Semper Sitientem]

Cleaning bottles is the worst.  Especially if they already have labels on them,  Getting the glue off an be such a pain.

Soak in an Oxyclean solution. Labels fall off and glue softens and is easily scrubbed off.

[neuse]

For me it's bottling. I would have switched to kegging a long time ago if I had a practical way to manage it in my house. Believe it or not, my bottling day is five hours including clean-up. I know that's a really long bottling day, but it is what it is.

[Village Taphouse]

Now do we need a thread about the BEST part of brewing?    I'm surprised Denny said "Milling grain".  I don't really mind it but I just (recently) bought Mighty Mill and it's been a real joy to use.  Five minutes with my new toy and it's back on the shelf until next time. 

[Semper Sitientem]

For me it's bottling. I would have switched to kegging a long time ago if I had a practical way to manage it in my house. Believe it or not, my bottling day is five hours including clean-up. I know that's a really long bottling day, but it is what it is.

Not sure what type of capper you use, but I recently switched from a double lever capper to a bench capper and found it saves me some time. Specifically, I purchased the one from Anvil. The long base makes it very sturdy so there is no tipping.

[neuse]

For me it's bottling. I would have switched to kegging a long time ago if I had a practical way to manage it in my house. Believe it or not, my bottling day is five hours including clean-up. I know that's a really long bottling day, but it is what it is.

Not sure what type of capper you use, but I recently switched from a double lever capper to a bench capper and found it saves me some time. Specifically, I purchased the one from Anvil. The long base makes it very sturdy so there is no tipping.

Yes, I use a bench capper. It's really not the equipment or the process - it's just me. A good hour and a half is clean-up, so obviously I'm just slow.

[denny]

Now do we need a thread about the BEST part of brewing?    I'm surprised Denny said "Milling grain".  I don't really mind it but I just (recently) bought Mighty Mill and it's been a real joy to use.  Five minutes with my new toy and it's back on the shelf until next time.

I wrote that after milling 35 lb for an upcoming batch. It was boring!

[goose]

Cleaning kegs has it hands down for me. I generally stack up 6 or 7 kegs and do them at the same time to save on chemicals.
 
  1) Dump
  2) Disassemble
  3) Rinse
  4) Fill w/ PBW
  5) Soak
  6) Repeat 1,2,3 (racking PBW to next keg), 4, and 5
  7) Rinse
  Let drip dry
  9) Reassemble
  10) Continue until all kegs are done.

I can also second the 4 your round trip to my "Local" Homebrew Supply Store.  Closest LHBS since our last one closed a few years ago.

Paul

Paul

I just saw this one, Paul.  Yup cleaning kegs is a PITA and unfortunately I let them accumulate until I have about 6 to do before cleaning them.  I do everything the same except I use a dairy milk tank cleaner a brush to scrub the kegs, rinse three times, then pressurize with CO2 for storage.  When it comes time to keg, I fill the keg with sanitizer (Saniclean because it doesn't foam) and push the sanitizer out of the keg with CO2.  But the whole process is a PITA.

[erockrph]

Not gonna lie - If I could I'd skip everything between recipe formulation and mashing in, and between pitching and drinking finished beer.

[denny]

Not gonna lie - If I could I'd skip everything between recipe formulation and mashing in, and between pitching and drinking finished beer.

Amen!

[erockrph]

Cleaning kegs has it hands down for me. I generally stack up 6 or 7 kegs and do them at the same time to save on chemicals.
 
  1) Dump
  2) Disassemble
  3) Rinse
  4) Fill w/ PBW
  5) Soak
  6) Repeat 1,2,3 (racking PBW to next keg), 4, and 5
  7) Rinse
  Let drip dry
  9) Reassemble
  10) Continue until all kegs are done.

I can also second the 4 your round trip to my "Local" Homebrew Supply Store.  Closest LHBS since our last one closed a few years ago.

Paul

Paul

I just saw this one, Paul.  Yup cleaning kegs is a PITA and unfortunately I let them accumulate until I have about 6 to do before cleaning them.  I do everything the same except I use a dairy milk tank cleaner a brush to scrub the kegs, rinse three times, then pressurize with CO2 for storage.  When it comes time to keg, I fill the keg with sanitizer (Saniclean because it doesn't foam) and push the sanitizer out of the keg with CO2.  But the whole process is a PITA.

Not gonna lie, I don't bother disassembling kegs unless there's a problem. They just get dumped/rinsed quick, followed by PBW, Star San, and refill with beer. I also use the keg to run the PBW and Star San through my beer lines at the same time. I don't keep full kegs laying around though. I generally pull a keg off the kegerator, then clean and refill it the same day. I'm sure I'm rolling the dice, but I've been doing this for 7 or 8 years now and haven't had an issue yet.

[Skeeter686]

Yup cleaning kegs is a PITA and unfortunately I let them accumulate until I have about 6 to do before cleaning them.

Not gonna lie, I don't bother disassembling kegs unless there's a problem. They just get dumped/rinsed quick, followed by PBW, Star San, and refill with beer. I also use the keg to run the PBW and Star San through my beer lines at the same time. I don't keep full kegs laying around though. I generally pull a keg off the kegerator, then clean and refill it the same day. I'm sure I'm rolling the dice, but I've been doing this for 7 or 8 years now and haven't had an issue yet.

I also save up several so that I can knock out multiple kegs at a time.  I do not disassemble at each cleaning, but I have my kegs numbered so that I can do a more thorough disassembly, inspection and cleaning every third or fourth time.

[Rudy]

I enjoy the whole process because I know what is waiting for me at the end.

[brewthru]

Cleaning up. It's at the end of a long brew day. Reminds me of playing sports. Stand around not doing much and, then, I'm busy.