Do I need to Clean Gas Splits?
 

I bought a used keg setup & have everything ready to hook up, including 2 full kegs of beer! I broke everything down & cleaned & replaced a lot of stuff, but I am wondering if the brass gas splits should be cleaned. Any advice?

Anything on the gas side of the keg normaly doesn't need cleaning. CO2 is sterile. The only exception is if the get beer in them, like when I hooked my gas line to the beer out post. Don't do it. I had to clean beer out of the regulator.

what if they smell funky? Could the funkiness be pushed into my beer?

If things smell funky, I would clean or replace.
Something went wrong. There is no reason for things to get funky in the gas lines. Like scook said, it's sterile.

I think it's just an old musty smell from storage in the guy's garage for awhile without use. I'll give them a soak just to be sure.

Give them a soak in BPW or Oxyclean or whatever you use and brush them out if you have a brush that will fit. Or just replace, the Y's don't cost much. Your right, if there is something going in it could end up in the beer.

did that & got the funk out. They pass the smell test now.

I'd say your good to go.

Steve

Dun matter if CO2 is sterile. It won't make your lines sterile any more than it will make your beer sterile. It doesn't sterilize/sanitize things. Condensation and dripping back can allow mold/mildew to grow in gas lines. Could make spores and migrate to beer. If you drop regulator pressure and then agitate the keg, some foam/splash could make it there too. I don't clean the gas lines when I clean the beer lines, but I always replace both at the same time.

In our brewery, our CO2 lines in every department (fermenting, aging, finished beer cellars) are all connected to a main CO2. If one department accidentally pushes beer into their CO2 line, it starts an emergency shut down protocol for all departments to shut off from the CO2 supply, until the affected CO2 lines can get pushed out and re-sterized. The bugs that can live in CO2 are nasty, and in our world we are talking about potential spoiling of 100,000's of bbls instantly.

So while we may go overboard, I wouldn't worry as long as you start with sterile CO2 lines, and don't get any beer back flowed into the lines. As well as not having empty lines sit disconnected and unpressurized for too long.

As well with StMarcos's advice, changing all the CO2 lines on a regular rotation will help prevent bio buildup.