Carboy Cleaner

Carboy cleaning, the least fun part of brewing beer. The old stand by bristle brush doesn't always do the greatest job cleaning, especially if you don't soak the carboy.

Sure you can spend $30 on a ready made cleaner to be used with a power drill, but half the fun of homebrewing is tinkering with your setup.

Materials:
3/8" aluminum rod roughly 3' long
Nylon washers
#8 pan head screw
#8 acorn nut
Washable mop head( I used a Libman)

Tools:
Drill
Drill bit (3/16")
Screw driver
7/16" combination wrench

Carefully disassemble the mop head taking care not to rip or cut the fabric strips.

There is a square plunger and base which is pressed into the plastic connector of the mop. Using a pair of side cutters you can trim away bits of plastic to help remove the plunger.

If you've ever tried to drill a hole on a curved or rounded surface you know its not the easiest task. To ease this I filed a small portion of the rod and the drilled a 3/16" hole.

I also debarred the holes, but this is not required.

Take four of the mop fabric strips and add an extra hole roughly 1/2" from the existing hole.

Assemble the cleaner using the #8 screw and nylon washers to help prevent tearing of the cloth strips. Two strips folded in half should used on each side of the aluminum rod. Finally add the remaining two cloth strips, nylon washer and acorn nut and tighten.

For $12 in materials and 20 minutes it works great.