Your Keg Washing System? Looking for ideas.
 

Looking for ideas for a DIY corney keg washing/sanitizing system. I have been thinking through my options, using what I have available. Plenty of copper tubing and fittings, buckets, hoses, couple of different pumps, etc., but no really fine ideas yet on how to put it all together. If you don't mind, how about showing us your system?

Bathtub full of oxyclean... soak it, scrub it (if needed), rinse it, fill it with star san, pressurize and pump the star san out. Works for me. :p

I completely dismantle the keg, remove the o-rings, and stuff it all into the keg after it all gets a good rinse, I then fill the keg with hot water and oxyclean and let it soak for 24 hours, then rinse the heck out of everything, replace any iffy o-rings, lube the o-rings and reassemble, fill with starsan and push with co2 to the next cleaned keg, the keg is now ready to go, and sealed with co2. My equipment consists of a showerhead on an extended hose, and a jumper for coupling the kegs together.

+1 I clean my kegs essentially the same way. My Oxyclean soak time varies from as little as 20 minutes to overnight. I sanitize the kegs a little differently though. I just pour about a quart of StarSan into the keg and shake it up well to wet all of the internal surfaces. I then dump the StarSan into the next keg and so on if I am doing several at once. My equipment consists of some RV type potable water hose with a plastic pistol grip nozzle hooked up to my laundry sink in the basement. I'm fortunate to have a floor drain near the laundry tub, so wash downs and rinsing are a breeze. I've never had an infection or contamination problem, so I guess my method is effective.

- Rinse well in sink
- Fill with c-brite and hot water, let sit for 30 minutes
- Flip upside down, let sit for 30 more minutes
- Hook up picnic tap and CO2, blow out liquid for a couple minutes, then dump out and rinse again in sink
- Fill with iodophor and cold water, let sit for 30 minutes
- Flip upside down, let sit for 30 more minutes
- Hook up tap and CO2 again, blow out liquid for a few minutes, then dump out the rest
- Let dry upside down on a paper towel

That's my system, and so far no complaints. =)

lube? maybe I've been doing it wrong, but what are you lubing them with? I've never lubed before.


...and get your mind out of the gutter.

Lubrifilm FTW:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/lubrifilm-spray.html

I suggest avoiding the keg lube stuff (silicone grease) as it is very messy and nearly impossible to wash off of whatever you put it on. The Lubrifilm is much more user friendly. A single can will last you for a very, very long time. A little goes a long way.

gutter??? who me?? You don't want to tear an o-ring! :D

I use a virtually bottomless tube of CIP film for lubing stuff up.
(CIP has a lower melting point than Lubrifilm so it cleans up with hot water a bit easier.)
http://www.northernbrewer.com/media/.../image_872.jpg

Build one of these: http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Heated-Keg-and-Carboy-Cleaner

thanks guys...I'll look into both of those! Tearing an O-ring would more than ruin my day!

:mug: