A brewery hose spends a small part of its life carrying beer and a large part of it carrying cleaning chemicals. Wort at 100 °C, then cold beer, then hot caustic, then acid, then hot water, several times a week. The product is the gentle bit. The clean-in-place cycle is what actually decides how the assembly is built and how long it lasts.
What this service does to a hose
CIP is the real duty. A typical cycle is hot caustic at 2–3 % and 70–85 °C, then a rinse, then an acid pass, then a hot water sanitise. That is hot concentrated caustic on a cycling stainless line, which is exactly the condition described on the caustic page, arriving twice a week for years. It is also a full thermal cycle each time — ambient to 85 °C and back — applied at the collar where the corrugation meets the ferrule.
Chlorides from the sanitiser. Where a chlorine-releasing sanitiser is used rather than peracetic acid, the line sees chloride at temperature, and chloride at temperature is the one thing 316L is least comfortable with. If your sanitiser is chlorine-based, that changes the conversation and it should be on the enquiry.
Drainability and the taste panel. Beer left in a corrugation valley through a weekend is a spoilage organism’s ideal home, and the result reaches the consumer as a taint before it ever reaches a microbiologist as a count. A convoluted bore that does not fully drain is the mechanism.
Carbonation and pressure. Beer lines carry dissolved CO₂ and are usually run under counter-pressure. It is not a demanding pressure, but it does mean the assembly is under pressure at low temperature and then at high temperature during CIP, which is two different derating cases on one part.
What we would fit
| Element | What we would supply | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bore | PTFE smooth bore on product contact; 316L corrugated on utility and CIP return | It drains, it cleans and it does not hold a spoilage organism |
| Hose | 316L annular corrugated as the pressure element | The CIP chemistry sees the liner, not the metal |
| Braid | 316L, sized on the derated pressure at CIP temperature | The hot case is the sizing case, not the cold beer one |
| Ends | Tri-clamp as standard, crevice-free, sized to your existing fittings | It has to break down for inspection without damaging the face |
| Finish | Internal Ra stated as a number where your quality system asks for one | So it can be verified rather than asserted |
What we would not fit, and what happens
An unlined corrugated bore on a product line that is not cleared and drained. The valleys hold product and the product spoils.
An assembly with a crevice at the tri-clamp face. It will fail a swab, and a brewery swabs.
Interlock hose. Not pressure-tight and impossible to clean.
304L on a line that sees a chlorine sanitiser hot. It is a pitting duty and 304L is the wrong grade for it.
What we need to size it
| We need | Because |
|---|---|
| Product, and the operating temperature and pressure | The easy part, but still required |
| The full CIP recipe — chemicals, concentrations, temperatures, contact times | This is the duty that actually sizes the assembly |
| Sanitiser type, and whether it is chlorine-releasing | Hot chloride changes the grade discussion |
| Cycles per week | It is the fatigue and the thermal-cycle duty combined |
| Whether the line is drained between runs | It decides whether a lined bore is necessary |
| End connection family and size | Tri-clamp, DIN and ISO are different |