Oxiclean and cornys?

Going to do some kegging tomorrow. I have a corny that was rinsed out pretty well when I emptied it. But it could still use a good scrubbing before I put beer in it tomorrow. I just recently bought some Oxi because it seems like a lot of guys here use it. Is it safe for stainless cornys? I was thinking about a gallon of diluted oxi-water solution and a soft cloth to give it a good cleaning inside (maybe a dishtowel).

Then a good rinse before sanitation. Will that work or is Oxi not recommended for kegs? I would be cleaning the metal parts only with this solution.

It's fine. Before using them for the first time, I usually fill them up, let them soak over night, rinse thoroughly and fill them with a starsan solution before using them. After that I usually just fill them with starsan and push it out the tap, although I've only been kegging for a few months and need to get on a regiment of disassembling and cleaning them thoroughly every few months.

Sorry... To clarify, I meant fill them up with hot water and dump a scoop of Oxiclean in

I use 1/4 scoop ...ish....per keg..

Oh jeez yes use oxyclean... were you not cleaning your cornies at all before? *shudder*

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

Oh jeez yes use oxyclean... were you not cleaning your cornies at all before? *shudder*

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To clarify, I was not using detergent to clean the kegs. Until now, I would do an immediate hot water soak after they were empty. After a couple of hours of that, I would use hot water and a dish cloth to get any yeast residue off. Then a hot water flush until there was no sediment at all (just bare steel). Then I would do a star san soak before kegging.

I've just never been comfortable using any sort of soap or detergent on them.

I completely disassemble the kegs first. Next I rinse the kegs well with hot tap water. I then add a heaping scoop of Oxyclean, fill with hot tap water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Then I empty the kegs and rinse thoroughly with cold water then sanitize them with StarSan before re-assembly and pressurizing. I keep the kegs pressurized until ready to use. I never scrub out the interior, but I do use a hose and nozzle to spray out the interior with some force when rinsing. Oxyclean is harmless to stainless steel and really works well. Even the genric Dollar store stuff seems to work well.

Yep, I use OxyClean to clean mine. I'll use about a half scoop per keg, soak overnight - or 24 hours or so - and then scrub with a carboy brush, and then rinse well. I'll then fill one keg with Starsan, and then transfer from one to the next until I get to the last keg. After the last keg, I'll transfer to a bucket to reuse the Starsan for something else.

Catt22 said:

I completely disassemble the kegs first. Next I rinse the kegs well with hot tap water. I then add a heaping scoop of Oxyclean, fill with hot tap water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Then I empty the kegs and rinse thoroughly with cold water then sanitize them with StarSan before re-assembly and pressurizing. I keep the kegs pressurized until ready to use. I never scrub out the interior, but I do use a hose and nozzle to spray out the interior with some force when rinsing. Oxyclean is harmless to stainless steel and really works well. Even the genric Dollar store stuff seems to work well.

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Are you leaving any starsan in the keg? If so, how much and how long would be ok? I've been leaving mine filled with oxyclean until time to use but I'd rather have them ready to go while in storage. Thanks.

shelly_belly said:

Are you leaving any starsan in the keg? If so, how much and how long would be ok? I've been leaving mine filled with oxyclean until time to use but I'd rather have them ready to go while in storage. Thanks.

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StarSan != Oxyclean. The former is a sanitizer and can be left in a keg for extended periods of time. The latter is a detergent (and a doozy of one, for that) and probably shouldn't be left in there for too long... it may cause pitting on the steel. I usually don't leave it in mine for longer than a couple days but typically just a few hours.

shelly_belly said:

Are you leaving any starsan in the keg? If so, how much and how long would be ok? I've been leaving mine filled with oxyclean until time to use but I'd rather have them ready to go while in storage. Thanks.

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I only put a small amount of StarSan in the kegs, maybe a pint or so. I invert the keg and slosh it around so that all interior surfaces are thoroughly wetted. I thin dump out the excess, replace the lid and charge it with about 20 psi or so. I have left the StarSan in the keg for extended periods with no problems, but there's really no need to do so and no advantage that I know of. I pressurize the keg so that it seals well, but also to make sure that it is holding pressure before I fill it with beer.

Food saftey regulations require that you 1.Clean 2.Sanitize 3.Rinse

OxiClean = Poor mans PBW this breaks loose all your organic matter (yeast,malt,scuz, etc)

Then Rinse.

Star san = Acidic sanitizer it kills bacteria by corroding their cell wall. Not very toxic to yeast. You may have noticed it turns cloudy after days. That means its not acidic anymore, especially if you use tap water. If you have pH strips test it over days you'll see the change. Its actually better to wash/soak for 3 min then dump, it leaves acidic salt (bottle shine) on the corny this will keep it sanitary as long as you dont leave the lid off. I normally strip and clean mine then put a grociery bag over them. I cheat and havnt had it go bad yet. I leave 3 corneys in the fridge atatime if Im refilling them with the same beer I just rinse the yeast out. As long as something is kept below 40F bacteria growth is supressed.

Here are some good listening as reference.

Brew Strong: Cleaning - With Jon Herskovits of Five Star Chemicals
Brew Strong Sanitation - With Jon Herskovits of Five Star Chemicals

I must be a total beer geek cause this is the kind of stuff I have on MY ipod at work all day.

Keep it clean out there.

OK. More than just a little bit embarrassed. I usually consider myself a clean person in most things. I thought brewing was no exception. A 3-hr Oxi soak showed me I wasn't getting my kegs quite as clean as I thought I had been.


On the bright side, my porter had a nice clean house to move into this afternoon.

Hey be carefull I just learned something I need to research about PBW or Oxi clean, washing with warm water and rinsing with cold drops calcium out of tap water and will leave scale build up.

ChristianAlpha-RuBrew said:

Hey be carefull I just learned something I need to research about PBW or Oxi clean, washing with warm water and rinsing with cold drops calcium out of tap water and will leave scale build up.

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I have had zero problems with this. No scale build up that I can detect. I soak bottles in a hot Oxyclean solution and rinse with cold water. I would think that calcium/mineral precipitates would be visible on the bottles. Maybe the StarSan treatment takes care of the mineral deposits in the process of sanitizing. Seems like it would.

Yeah, I've never had problems with calcium deposits and I always rinse hot several times followed by cold a couple times.

I usually oxy clean mine for 20-30 minutes then dump. Sanitize them and store them pressurized. No problems yet.

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

Yeah, I've never had problems with calcium deposits and I always rinse hot several times followed by cold a couple times.

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+1 That's exactly the way I do it too. Exactly!

I've left kegs up to a week with Oxyclean solution in them with no visible harm. I picked up some free corny corny kegs off Craigslist that had been stored with the lids off in an outdoor shed for some number of years. After pressure washing the inside to get out the bugs and dirt, 1/2 scoop of oxyclean and some hot water and left them for a week... pressure washed them out again and they were shiny clean.

I clean my cornies with water and a small amount of bleach. I presurize the keg with co2 and shoot some of the water out with a tap. I drain the bleach, rinse and repeat this process with Oyxiclean.

FWIW, the oxiclean label says to not soak metals.

When I kill a keg, I rinse it out well, then add about 1/4 scoop of oxyclean and about a gallon of HOT water. Then, I put the lid back on the keg and shake it to help get the detergent everywhere. The heating of the air in the keg also increases the pressure enough to let some detergent into the liquid dip tube when I push the poppet down.

I then leave the keg to soak for about an hour, then rinse with hot water, following the same water-lid-shake-poppet trick to rinse the dip tube. I then sanitize with iodophor (personal preference), and store the keg with about a quart of iodophor solution in it.*

* Warning: Metallurgist-speak below: Iodophor contains chlorine. Chlorine can cause pitting in stainless steels. However, the chlorine levels in properly-mixed iodophor are fairly low (25 ppm), and the storage temperature and pH are both low and relatively neutral, respectively. for a typical 304 stainless, the critical pitting temperature is well above RT for a 25 ppm Cl solution at pH ~7.

Catt22 said:

I have had zero problems with this. No scale build up that I can detect. I soak bottles in a hot Oxyclean solution and rinse with cold water. I would think that calcium/mineral precipitates would be visible on the bottles. Maybe the StarSan treatment takes care of the mineral deposits in the process of sanitizing. Seems like it would.

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Hence, I said must check, kinda just use caution, I do a hot water rinse too. But I dont exactly understand what "Beer Stone" is.

robertbartsch said:

I clean my cornies with water and a small amount of bleach. I presurize the keg with co2 and shoot some of the water out with a tap. I drain the bleach, rinse and repeat this process with Oyxiclean.

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Your kegs won't be around long if you keep using bleach on them... bleach will pit and corrode stainless steel.

I use oxyclean on all my kegs too. I actually use AHS Brewvint Cleanitizer, but it's pretty much the same thing. No harm so far.

The local store around here actually cleans his kegs with PBW and then just dumps and puts the top back on. They stay like that until someone buys them so I don't think any extended soaking will hurt anything.