Keg sanitizing with boiling water.

Was wondering if anyone out their sanitizes/sterilizes their keg with boiling water?

I was thinking about possibly adding 2.5 gallons of boiling water to my corny keg and immediately sealing it. The water will sterilize the lower half the keg and the steam will sterilize the upper half. This way I wouldn't have to worry about running boiling water thru my plastic/rubber lines.

Any experience/thoughts are much appreciated.

Cheers
Pat

It never occurred to me to try and sanitize my kegs with boiling water. That said, I'm not sure that's the route I would take. My first thought was the o-rings. I doubt the o-rings that seal the kegs are high temp o-rings and you wouldn't want to damage them with boiling water. Plus, how are you going to get your boiling water into the kegs? Doesn't sound like a good time to me.

I prefer a brush, soap, elbow grease, and rinse. Followed by sanitizer (I use Starsan myself). I pressurize the keg and run sanitizer out of the dispensing tube to cover the inside of that as well.

RuffRider said:

It never occurred to me to try and sanitize my kegs with boiling water. That said, I'm not sure that's the route I would take. My first thought was the o-rings. I doubt the o-rings that seal the kegs are high temp o-rings and you wouldn't want to damage them with boiling water. Plus, how are you going to get your boiling water into the kegs? Doesn't sound like a good time to me.

I prefer a brush, soap, elbow grease, and rinse. Followed by sanitizer (I use Starsan myself). I pressurize the keg and run sanitizer out of the dispensing tube to cover the inside of that as well.

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I currently do the same procedure you do but I was just interested to see if anyone out their does use the boiling water approach and if they have had any issues.

A thread on another forum made me wonder if this would work?

psnydez86 said:

A thread on another forum made me wonder if this would work?

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Hmmmmm...interesting. I still don't think I would want to deal with boiling water in this case. But, that's me personally. I'm interested to hear what others have to say.

I worry about the seals with water that hot. The hot water out of my tap is about 120. I use that with some scent free dish soap, followed by a hot rinse, then sanitizer with room temp water.


Another thing would be if you're using cornies with the rubber top and bases, would the temps of near boiling water affect the adhesive used to hold the tops (or the tops themselves) to the stainless?

seems like a lot of extra work when starsan or iodophor is only pennies for 5 gallons.

I clean them with oxy then run star San through them...the lines as well. A buddy who brews a ton does the Same thing and has no issues

pretty sure you would need to fill it with the boiling water

amandabab said:

seems like a lot of extra work when starsan or iodophor is only pennies for 5 gallons.

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This.

You can buy 32 oz of StarSan online for $16. So $0.50/oz undiluted, which is 10 cents per gallon of diluted solution.

Also, even with boiling water, sanitization wouldn't be instant. Would the temp stay high enough long enough to be effective. I personally wouldn't want to risk it.

After having sour beer in a keg, I rinse it and then put boiling water. I fill the keg completely. After 30 minutes or so, I empty the keg, rinse it with cool water, then sanitize with star san. I use the boiling water to help remove any bacteria that may be there from the sour beer, then follow my normal cleaning routine. If the beer has been in there for a while, I may change the o-rings since I can't be sure that the boiling water would have removed any bacteria that may have impregnated the o-rings. Just my routine. Others may have different thoughts. Good luck.

psnydez86 said:

Was wondering if anyone out their sanitizes/sterilizes their keg with boiling water?

I was thinking about possibly adding 2.5 gallons of boiling water to my corny keg and immediately sealing it. The water will sterilize the lower half the keg and the steam will sterilize the upper half. This way I wouldn't have to worry about running boiling water thru my plastic/rubber lines.

Any experience/thoughts are much appreciated.

Cheers
Pat

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I just use iodine. Cheap and easy.

First, working with boiling water in a keg is not a real safe idea.
I have used boiling water pumped through a spray ball to sanitize a fermenter, (ran out of chemical, and had to get the beer made that day) it was a pain. Homebrewers tend to get fixated on using chemicals as the only way, pros use chemicals because it is the easy and cheapest way (at least I did). Boiling is a good backup but I would not use it as a regular process.

I don't see a reason to, although if you filled it up, it would work. I can stick my arm into a keg full of starsan or iodophor, and don't get anything worse than a wet tshirt if some spills on me. Not to mention the fact that it takes less than a minute to make 5 gallons of starsan which will last a month or two and uses no fuel and doesn't heat up my kitchen.

I have only ever cleaned my kegs with boiling water. I do so when a keg is kicked and before I fill it. I have an electric kettle (tea kettle not brew kettle) that holds about a half gallon of water. As soon as it comes to a boil I pour it in, seal the keg, and give it a shake. Ill let the keg sit right side up and upside down for a few minutes. The. I put the keg in the sink, and use a fork to press the beer out poppet to let the water up the dip tube to clean that as well. Only thing with that is throw a towel over the keg to keep the spray of water under control. I have been doing this for five years with no problem at all. I've also run the water through my beer lines with no problem. Heat is the best for sterilizing I think - no chemical residue to worry about drinking later!