PKW Brewery Clean In Place (CIP) Systems

Thank you for your interest in Clean In Place (CIP) systems for your brewery from Portland Kettle Works. Our CIP systems let you “be green” and save time and money while significantly increasing safety, reducing water consumption, reusing caustic solvents and putting you in total control of your tank cleaning operations.

As a craft brewer, you understand the importance of maintaining a hygienic brewing environment to ensure your craft brew’s quality, purity and consistency. That’s where a PKW Clean In Place (CIP) System comes in. Our brewery CIP Systems clean and sanitize all internal surfaces of your brewing equipment by pumping cleaning, rinsing, and sanitizing solutions over the same surfaces and through the same piping path used by your craft beer.

CIP systems are vital in craft brewing because of the need to keep all brewing components spotlessly clean and free of bacteria and other contamination. Using a CIP system keeps brewhouses, boil kettles, fermentation tanks, storage tanks, heat exchangers, associated piping and other brewing equipment sanitary and prevents contamination without having to remove or disassemble piping or equipment to accommodate cleaning.

Advantages of a PKW Brewery CIP Systems

Using a PKW Clean in Place (CIP) system offers craft brewers a number of advantages:

  • Product Quality and Consistency: Regular, reliable and repeatable CIP cleaning means more consistent product quality.
  • Environmentally Friendly: CIP systems minimize water usage and allow you to store and reuse caustic cleaning solvents.
  • Minimize Errors: Automating CIP cleaning reduces the risk of human error that can result in contaminated brewing products or hazardous brewery conditions.
  • Employee Safety: CIP reduces the risk of employee exposure to toxic cleaning solutions during routine brewery cleaning.
  • Production Efficiency: With CIP less production time is lost to cleaning leaving more time available for you to brew more craft beer.
  • Cost Savings: CIP cycles are consistent to minimize water, cleaning solvent and energy usage.

The CIP Cleaning Cycle


CIP cleaning cycles are typically run after a brewing batch has been completed or when changing over the brew house from one craft brew to another.

While the exact steps, sequence, and duration of the CIP cleaning process can vary from one CIP system to another, some common steps in most CIP cleaning cycles include:

  • Pre-Rinse: Wet pipes and interior surfaces of tanks. Rinse off loose residue.
  • Caustic Wash: Wash surfaces with caustic liquid cleaning agent at 140°- 190° F.
  • Final Rinse: Rinse all surfaces with clear water to remove caustic agent residue
  • Sanitizing Rinse: Rinse with sanitizing agent to kill germs and prevent bacteria growth.

All steps of the CIP cleaning cycle are computer controlled and all times, temperatures, etc. can be varied according to your brewery’s requirements to produce a consistent, sanitary equipment cleaning time after time.

PKW Clean In Place (CIP) systems can automatically safely clean your brewing equipment and save you time and money so you can produce batch after batch of your best craft beer.


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Explore Portable CIP Cart Financing Options

Portland Kettle Works makes it easy for you to finance your portable CIP cart purchase. Just click to explore our equipment financing program.

PKW Financing

Portland Kettle Works was founded in 2011 to build the highest quality stainless steel brewing and beverage equipment applications. Since then we have built and installed over 400 state-of-the-art craft breweries worldwide. Our craft brewing clients are among the best of the best and they have the gold, silver and bronze medals to prove it. If you’re serious about craft brewing as a business, please contact us and we can help you, too. And if you’re located in Mexico or Latin America, click here to visit our Spanish language site.