Sheets taped to the tanks
Each fermenter has a laminated sheet with columns for date, caustic, rinse, acid, sanitiser, initials. Some rows are filled in carefully. Some have a tick for the whole cycle. One sheet came off in the wash and was replaced with a blank one. The keg washer has its own log in a folder, and the taproom line cleaning is on a calendar in the cellar.
It works until you need it. An infection turns up in a batch and you want to know when that fermenter was last fully cleaned and what concentration was used. Or an inspector or a customer asks to see your cleaning records for the last quarter.
Why cleaning records stay patchy
Cleaning is done by whoever is on, often at the end of a long day, with wet gloves. The sheet is on the tank, the pen has vanished, and the record gets filled in later from memory. Checks such as caustic strength or sanitiser concentration are done, but the reading is not always written down. Nobody reviews the sheets until something goes wrong.
- Records are filled in after the fact, from memory.
- Chemical strength readings are taken but not written.
- Each area keeps its own paper log in its own place.
- Missed cleans are only found when someone looks.
- Old sheets are thrown away or lost in folders.
What patchy records cost
When a batch goes wrong, you cannot rule cleaning in or out, so the search for the cause takes longer. When someone asks for evidence, you spend a day gathering folders and still find gaps. And because missed cleans are invisible until they matter, habits drift: a step is skipped on busy days and nobody notices.
Your food safety and hygiene rules are for you and your own advisers to set. We make it easier to follow them and to show what was done.
A cleaning log on the phone
- Every vessel, line, heat exchanger, keg washer and taproom line has a QR code on it.
- Scanning the code opens that item's cleaning steps, as you define them: caustic, rinse, acid, sanitise, or a line clean cycle.
- Each step is ticked as it is done, with the chemical reading or temperature typed in where you ask for it, and the time recorded automatically.
- Readings outside your set range are flagged at once, so a weak caustic is topped up before the cycle, not discovered afterwards.
- Vessel status shows as clean, dirty or in use, linked to the tank schedule, so a fill cannot be planned into a vessel with no clean recorded since the last beer.
- A daily list shows any clean that was due and not recorded, sent to the production manager.
- Records are kept and searchable by vessel and date, exportable when someone asks to see them.
| Area | Paper record | Phone log |
|---|---|---|
| Fermenters and brites | Sheet on the tank | Scan, steps, readings |
| Heat exchanger and hoses | Often none | Scan, steps |
| Keg washer | Folder log | Per cycle, linked to kegs |
| Taproom lines | Calendar in the cellar | Scan at the cooler |
| Missed cleans | Found later | Listed the same day |
What your team gets
Cleaners follow the same steps every time, because the phone shows them. Readings are recorded as they are taken. Missed cleans are caught the same day. When a batch has a problem, the vessel's recent cleaning history is right there. When you are asked for records, you export them instead of hunting for sheets.
The team also gets credit for work that was always done but never visible, which matters more to people than it sounds.
Recognise your cleaning sheets?
- Cleaning logs are paper sheets on each vessel.
- Records are completed at the end of the day, if at all.
- Chemical readings are not recorded consistently.
- Missed cleans are only found when something goes wrong.
- Pulling together records for someone takes a day.