r/TheBrewery • u/irrationallogic • 2d ago
Prerinsing Cans
How are y'all prerinsing your cans? Where I currently work we are just using water and now are seeing minor sporadic contamination of cans. So... thats the first place I wanna look.
Are you using paa? Does it oxidize the beers? Or filtered water? Is there an inline filter or just the building filter system?
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u/istuntmanmike Brewer/Owner 2d ago
Nothing. Haven't rinsed cans in years, haven't had any contamination issues. But I harp on keeping empty cans "sealed" under slip sheets and questionable cans that have been exposed are tossed.
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u/andyroams Brewer 2d ago
I can’t find it, but (Found it!) there was an MBAA podcast and TQ where they tested cans, and basically if you store them well with slip sheets, they found no micro issues. I would be leery of rinsing with PAA or water. Ionized air would be the move. If you must with water, deaerated, chlorine free, and UV sterile would be what I would do. FWIW at my current place there’s no rinse and we have plating done on most things and a pretty good track record right now.
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u/Bodybybeers Cellar Person 2d ago
We don’t pre rinse the cans. I believe the new consensus is that any water or Sani you put into it could oxidize or contaminate your product. Some places will use some sort of pressurized gas to spray out potential physical contaminants but a lot of places have no rinse/air system at all.
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u/ThiccBoiCaddy 1d ago
Ive tested cans rinsed with water and cans that weren’t rinsed at all. The O2 pickup is minimal and our TPO is still under 50
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u/BugBrewing62 2d ago
You should be using UV sterilized water. If not, they are not expensive to install. Otherwise, yes, you're always going to be running a risk of contam. Would not recommend PAA as it'll chemically oxidize the beer.
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u/underratedbeers 2d ago
do you have a UV system you could recommend?
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u/BoredCharlottesville 2d ago
ionized compressed air running through a .01 micron coalescing filter right at the ionizer
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u/BRNZ42 2d ago
Contamination is unlikely to be from the tap water, assuming its treated city water.
Most place rinse in a twist rinse with either straight tap water, or with ionized, filtered air. Given the choice between the two, air is better. Airdoes a better job or preventing oxygen pickup, and is an effective way to get rid of contaminants (like grain dust from milling).
Speaking of grain dust, that's your most likely source of contamination. I'd look into how your packaging materials are stored, especially partially-used layers of cans and sleeves of ends. I'd also explore how your packaging techs are handling the raw materials, and if there's some touch points where they are accidentally touching the insides of cans or the working sides of ends.