Weâre delighted to be launching our much-awaited cleaning and maintenance records feature
Itâs a super-powerful new part of Breww which we think will really make your lives easier. Weâve recorded a quick video walk-through explaining how it works and what you can do with it as we felt it was easier to explain in a video than with screenshots and reading (especially on a topic as interesting as cleaning).
So, grab yourself a beer and have a watch! Weâd love to hear your feedback on how we can further improve it and what you think of what weâve built so far.
Luke, this is a great addition. In terms of setting up to do a cask wash, would I need to set up 1 cask or a number of casks as equipment? Is there a way of linking to the scheduled packaging and then click the amount needed? Many thanks
Another quick one, I saved a cleaning process. Then when I have tried to edit it, the new version does not save. I am able to edit but then it keeps being overwritten by the original.
This is a great question. We didnât specifically create this with casks in mind to be honest, but it could certainly be used. I suggest not creating a piece of equipment for each individual cask, but creating a single piece of equipment to represent all casks. You can then schedule a time-based (e.g. weekly) clean of all dirty casks, or skip the schedule creation and manually trigger a clean event each time youâll be doing cask cleaning (Iâm assuming you do them in batches). A cleaning record can be manually triggered from the equipment screen. You could record in the notes which casks were cleaned (if you wanted a record of this).
The clean wouldnât be intrinsically linked back to the casks, so it wouldnât result in the casks themselves having any cleanliness status or history against them. And for this reason, Breww wouldnât be able to link this to any scheduled packaging.
When we built this feature, we linked cleaning records/schedules directly to brewing systems, vessels and other equipment (as per Brewwâs definition), but we left the door open for them to be able to be linked to other things in the future, so we could certainly explore linking them to tracked/returnable casks/kegs. Would this be useful for you? Would you want Breww to track the cleanliness of casks and need the cleaning process to be updated with the individual casks cleaned, or would this additional admin time not be worth the benefit, over simply recording that all dirty casks has been cleaned?
Whoops Iâm not quite sure how that slipped through the net, but thanks for pointing it out! Weâve patched this up now, so you should find that edits to processes are saved properly now. Sorry about this!
Brilliant thanks Luke. It is a great new feature.
In answer to the other question on cask washing. I have uploaded a new bit of equipment called âbulk casksâ. Then added in the readings ânumber of casks washedâ etc etc. It is great to have the ability track the cleaning material usage from the inventory. Is âother equipmentâ the right place for casks or should they be within vessels?
Having to scan every cask that is going to be washed might add on a bit too much complexity and time to the process? But as one key critical control points on a HACCP it might be worth thinking about?
âOther equipmentâ will be best for casks as if they go in as Vessels, theyâll appear alongside fermenters and brite tanks as options when making transfers and racking beer batches.
What youâve suggested for now, with a reading of ânumber of casks washedâ, is an excellent idea! Iâll have a chat with the others internally about how we can best improve the handling of casks for the future.
this is a great feature, and will cut out even more folders of paperwork I have laying around the brewery!
As Richard mentioned, it would be great to have the ability to add casks to this as an actual recorded cleaning step, as this is also a critical part of our HACCP too. However agreed that scanning each cask being washed may be a bit of a faff, but again, it still keeps a traceable cleaning record.
Thanks Rob, great to hear that youâd benefit from better cask cleaning records too.
Weâve had a couple of different ideas on how this could be implemented, so Iâve created a new thread where we can all work out the best solution for this together, see:
Weâd appreciate everyoneâs feedback on this, so we can build the solution that will work best for everyone.
Just wondering if it is possible to link other equipment to a cleaning record, for example if I was doing a Fermenter CIP, could I easily add a pump and some flexible hoses to the clean, so I could could see when they were last cleaned, who by and during which process?
If I set up a separate cleaning process for them, I cant use the usage based schedule for them as they donât get âusedâ during any tasks on Breww, and I want to clean them after every use.
Hope this makes sense.
This is a great idea, thanks for posting it here on the Breww Community! I think we can build something to support this for you.
Do you ever expect to add equipment to a cleaning process (like the pump/hose in your example) which doesnât need to be cleaned after every clean of the primary cleaning process (Fermenter CIP in your example)? As in, would you ever choose to add, say, a pump, which should be cleaned after ever 3 completions of a fermenter CIP?
The reason that I ask, is that adding usage based schedules to other types of equipment, could lead to situations like:
Create Fermenter CIP process which uses a pump.
Create schedule for every X uses of the pump (which Breww could allow as it knows it is part of the Fermenter CIP process and thus has âusesâ recorded).
You modify your Fermenter CIP process to no longer use the pump.
Now, what do we do with the pump schedule? Remove this schedule as no cleaning processes use it? Or keep it, but its uses will never be incremented, so a clean will never be triggered? Or even prevent you removing it from the Fermenter CIP process until youâve manually removed the schedule too?
If youâd expect the clean for this âancillary equipmentâ, like the pump, to always be needed after every primary cleaning process, we could let you add ancillary equipment used to a cleaning process directly and effectively âbake inâ the requirement for it to be cleaned after every competition of the primary cleaning process - and then Breww could more simply trigger the cleaning record for the pump which would then appear on your list of cleans due for recording who did it and when. This feels to me like the simpler solution for both us to build and for you to configure in your account, but it would lack support for âclean every 3 usesâ and only support âclean every useâ. How does this sound to you?
In our case the pumps and hoses will always need to be cleaned after every use.
But they are being used prior to a fermented cip, for example we would use the pump and hoses to transfer beer from a fermenter to a racking tank, or from the brewhouse to a fermenter, and it is at this stage they would become dirty. But there is nowhere in Breww to âuseâ these pieces of equipment so it wonât trigger the usage schedule.
We use these pumps and hoses as part of the fermenter cip process, so they would be getting cleaned at the same time as the fermenter, and wouldnât need to be cleaned after, in our case.
We have multiple pumps and hoses that we use. So we would need some way of selecting which hoses/pumps have been used, and we couldnât tie one pump to a particular process.
The alternative would be to be able to âuseâ this equipment when doing a beer transfer, and then trigger the usage schedule?
But yes something that supports a âclean every useâ would work for us.
Yes, thatâs very helpful. I like the âuse equipment in transferâ concept, this could then work well with usage based schedules for any equipment. We could do the same with racking to record equipment used in a racking process.
Iâll talk this though with the rest of the team and see what we can come up with.
Absolutely - that shouldnât be an issue at all. Tasks have been designed to include the ability to be âauto-completedâ by completing some other action in Breww, so Breww would be able to tick off the task for you as well once the cleaning record had been completed.
Iâll schedule this into the roadmap and give you an update here once itâs ready!
Thanks for checking in. Iâm afraid weâve not got to this yet, it has been an extremely busy last few weeks, and weâve had a number of unexpected things come our way!
Iâd hope that we can get to this in the new couple of weeks Donât worry, itâs not been forgotten
Hi,
On the maintenance side, would it/is it be possible to add other stock items to the Cleaning/Maintenance records?
The issue I have run into is I wanted to manage my water filter maintenance through breww; Iâve added the filter as a Stock Item (Other, Custom), but I donât seem to be able to add this stock item in the general maintenance process?
Originally, we thought only chemicals would be added to C&M records, but we have now added the option to add âOtherâ stock items to C&M records as well.
I hope this helps!
Sorry to revive an old thread - related to this where we require âsigned offâ records - would these be able to appear in tasks? I envisage it would involve a member of staff cleaning the vessel, and completing the record, awaiting a (physical & digital) sign-off - could a task be issued to a particular user to sign-off (e.g. a supervisor) as a prompt. I guess in the Production Settings you could designate who would receive those notifications?
Also - off topic, but could the same sort of feature be added to packaging approvals?
Thanks for the suggestions here.
Yes, we can definitely add task creation for C&M sign offs - good idea.
For packaging approvals, what would be most helpful for you as the trigger for the creation of the task?
Iâm not quite sure how that slipped through the net, but thanks for pointing it out! Weâve patched this up now, so you should find that edits to processes are saved properly now. Sorry about this!
Donât worry, itâs not been forgotten 