cleaning kegs,lines and rings

I am new to kegging, and need some advice on cleaning techniques.

When my first keg kicked, I washed everything,using oxyclean, rinsed with water and finally with star san. I cleaned the lines by running all of these fluids through them, but did not take apart the lines or the keg posts or the picnic tap.

Is it necessary to take apart posts, poppet valves, hoses and picnic tap or is my method sufficient?

I used keg lube to get a good seal on the lid.

The keg lube seems impossible to get completely off the o-ring. I washed it ( oxyclean ) tried wiping it off with paper towel,rinsed and star sanned it. I could still feel some lube on the ring, so repeated all the cleaning steps twice more. I would say the ring was still not squeeky clean as I could still feel a film of lube, but I did the best I could, re-lubed the ring and used it on the next batch.

Is that clean enough for the o-ring or is there a better way to get the ring squeeky clean?

Thanks for the help.

I take apart the posts and poppets and soak those and the lid in some PBW. There is sometimes some debris caught in the poppet. I just wipe the excess lube off the lid O ring first with a paper towel then soak, I don't seem to notice any residual that way. As star san is a sanitizer not a cleaner I don't use that until I'm ready to use the keg. Lines I clean in place but I take apart the faucets regularly.

I like using a cleaner containing some caustic on my kegs - they work faster than PBW and rinse without residue. I recommend National Chemicals' Alkaline Brewery Wash for this. Just don't use it on your Better Bottles...

Cain said:

Is it necessary to take apart posts, poppet valves, hoses and picnic tap or is my method sufficient?

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It's important to take them apart, because particulates often get stuck against the poppet, and can cause off-flavors, foaming, and potentially a source of infection.

Personally, I boil them, then dunk them in StarSan to cool off, and finally drain the sanitizer from the keg through the out-post using CO2 pressure. This also helps clean the lines.

Note: Some poppets (AEB-style) cannot be removed from their posts without breaking them.