American sanky 1/4 keg cleaning

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herc1354

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I have an old 1/4 keg that I would like to reuse, what is the bet way to clean it, it has been empty for several years. Is there a special tool used to remove the fitting and stand pipe? Perhaps it's not worth trying to messing with, the corny kegs are sooooo much easier to clean, I just hate to see this thing sit out and not get used. I would use it for s HERMS set up but it has a rubber bottom. Any thoughts and or suggestion?
 
I used to keg in Sankes for a while, still do on occasion but they are a bit harder than corny kegs. To remove the spear you're going to need to do a couple things:
1. Vent the gas out of the keg, this can be done by turning it upside down and using a large wrench (1" or 24mm works for me) to depress the ball.

2. Using a flat head screwdriver try and remove snap ring in the neck of the keg. Be careful because sometimes they're in there really tight and you don't want to break off your screwdriver head in the opening. Start on the side closest to the exposed end of the ring.

3. Once the ring is out, twist the spear (about an 1/8-1/4 turn) so that the retaining nubs line up with the opening in the neck.

From there you can clean it like a corny keg.

My suggestion is to use it for a fermentation vessel. If you disassemble the spear you'll find that the tube separates from the part with the nubs on it (let's call it the cage). You can reinstall the cage and an air lock bunge will fit perfectly in there. I do this all the time and it's hands down the best fermentation vessel I've used (no infection-plastic, unbreakable-glass, won't melt-better bottle).

Hope this helps!
 
mikronmagic said:
I used to keg in Sankes for a while, still do on occasion but they are a bit harder than corny kegs. To remove the spear you're going to need to do a couple things:
1. Vent the gas out of the keg, this can be done by turning it upside down and using a large wrench (1" or 24mm works for me) to depress the ball.

2. Using a flat head screwdriver try and remove snap ring in the neck of the keg. Be careful because sometimes they're in there really tight and you don't want to break off your screwdriver head in the opening. Start on the side closest to the exposed end of the ring.

3. Once the ring is out, twist the spear (about an 1/8-1/4 turn) so that the retaining nubs line up with the opening in the neck.

From there you can clean it like a corny keg.

My suggestion is to use it for a fermentation vessel. If you disassemble the spear you'll find that the tube separates from the part with the nubs on it (let's call it the cage). You can reinstall the cage and an air lock bunge will fit perfectly in there. I do this all the time and it's hands down the best fermentation vessel I've used (no infection-plastic, unbreakable-glass, won't melt-better bottle).

Hope this helps!

Hay thanks, I think I like it better as a fermentation vessel. A big concern I have is cleaning/sanitizing it, with such a small opening I'm afraid I'd have a hard time cleaning it.
 
It's actually not too bad cleaning. Really hot water + PBW or Oxyclean Free + 24-48 hours soaking time = one very clean keg!

If you're really worried you can even use boiling water, that's the beauty of fermenting in stainless.

If you get hung up on the keg dissasembly/assembly just pm me and I'll make a write up.
 
mikronmagic said:
It's actually not too bad cleaning. Really hot water + PBW or Oxyclean Free + 24-48 hours soaking time = one very clean keg!

If you're really worried you can even use boiling water, that's the beauty of fermenting in stainless.

If you get hung up on the keg dissasembly/assembly just pm me and I'll make a write up.

Sweet, thanks!
 
Here is a video that outlines it nicely. With a little practice you can remove and reassemble a sanke keg in about 60 seconds total.

As stated above, to clean them a soak with hot oxiclean/pbw works great!
 
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