When in between kegs, your beer line holds what?

So I'm sure this has been asked, but searching stuff like "what do you do with your beer lines if you are a couple of weeks away from connecting your next keg" was just too wordy to get me any results. Basically, I don't want mold or bacteria to form in my beer lines in the next few weeks before I have another keg ready to go.

I just finished a keg yesterday and ran warm water through the line to rinse out the beer. Then I pushed the water all the way out of the beer line and let CO2 run through for a couple of seconds. I then closed the beer tap, and shut off the CO2 going to the keg, and disconnected the beer line from the keg. So now I have CO2 trapped in the beer line (with a little bit of residual water). I assume that no bacteria or mold will grow in their since oxygen has theoretically been flushed out.

So what's the correct thing to do when your beer lines have to sit empty for a few weeks? Fill them with water, or C02, or just not worry about it?

Thanks

I push Oxiclean into the line while cleaning the keg and let the line sit for a week or so. I then push starsan into the line and let it sit indefinitely until I'm ready to use it. Never had any mold or other buggers in a line this way, and they stay very clean.

i second starsan in the lines when its sitting empty. When i rinse out a keg and sanitize it, i pump a little bit of the3 starsan throught the system too.

JoeBronco said:

i second starsan in the lines when its sitting empty. When i rinse out a keg and sanitize it, i pump a little bit of the3 starsan throught the system too.

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Same here.

After seeing what happened when I left my vinyl transfer tubing in a bucket of star-san for 2 days, I wouldn't store my beer lines full of sanitizer, but that's just me. The vinyl turned a milky white color, and became really really slimy as it had started to degrade. I store my lines full of water, and have never had an issue. Water is way less likely to grow anything than the beer that is stored in the lines when there's a keg connected, so I don't see the need to use anything to prevent mold/bacteria/etc.

JuanMoore said:

After seeing what happened when I left my vinyl transfer tubing in a bucket of star-san for 2 days, I wouldn't store my beer lines full of sanitizer, but that's just me. The vinyl turned a milky white color, and became really really slimy as it had started to degrade.

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Good point.

I noticed the same thing when I left my blowoff tubing in a bucket of Starsan for a few days. Didn't make the connection, though, with leaving Starsan in my keg lines. I'm now going to change my process going forward to leave them full of clean water.

I tend to leave it with some CO2 in it (closed by faucet on one end and the beer line post on the other end) after rinse > oxiclean > starsan

I just changed out my lines in my kegerator. I did a hot oxyclean then hot water then hot starsan flushes after every keg, but the starsan left this nasty film. I will be leaving my lines full of water and starsan them just before tapping my keg from now on.

Brew more won't be an issue.
Honestly though, wondering the same thing. I flush sanitizer through it before I keg the next one. I'm not happy with letting it sit until that occurs though.

Hi

If you leave them wet, you need to keep them wet and sealed. The alternative is to clean and sterilize them before blowing them dry. Either way it's clean and sterilize before next use.

If you use Starsan, you need to keep it at an acid pH (3.0). Once the pH starts to go up, the stuff stops working. I'm not a big fan of keeping my faucets, shanks and other "stuff" in acid for weeks...

Bob

Thanks for all the replies. I think il be ok with the co2 in the line. As long as that seal is tight nothing should be able to get into the line and start growing. I hope it's airtight... I can't say I've ever really read about or heard about mold in beer lines being a big issue. I was just trying to avoid a possible problem.

JuanMoore said:

After seeing what happened when I left my vinyl transfer tubing in a bucket of star-san for 2 days, I wouldn't store my beer lines full of sanitizer, but that's just me. The vinyl turned a milky white color, and became really really slimy as it had started to degrade. I store my lines full of water, and have never had an issue. Water is way less likely to grow anything than the beer that is stored in the lines when there's a keg connected, so I don't see the need to use anything to prevent mold/bacteria/etc.

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I've never had this happen. I wonder if it has something to do with the water chemistry??? I've had StarSan in some of my lines for months and they are still clear as day.

cyclonite said:

I've never had this happen. I wonder if it has something to do with the water chemistry??? I've had StarSan in some of my lines for months and they are still clear as day.

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I know the star-san solution itself will turn white if very hard water is used. I have a friend who had the same experience with star-san making the vinyl degrade and turn slimy using distilled water. Not sure if his also turned white or not. I've also seen undiluted star-san disolve a solid PVC electrical enclosure (very similar composition to vinyl beer line) when one of my star-san bottles developed a crack.

I rinse, sanitize, then blow them clear with CO2.

Am I the only person who does not clean out my lines? Most of the time I have each tap in use so I just purge the remaining liquid in the line from the previous beer with a bit of the new beer when its ready.

Is there really a big risk of getting mold in my lines?

I usually do a thorough cleaning using cleaner if my kegs and lines are going to sit empty for a few weeks. Then right before I fill the keg, I'll do a quick rinsing and flushing of the keg/lines with Starsan. I've never had a problem.

barhoc11 said:

Am I the only person who does not clean out my lines? Most of the time I have each tap in use so I just purge the remaining liquid in the line from the previous beer with a bit of the new beer when its ready.

Is there really a big risk of getting mold in my lines?

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I pretty much do the same, I'm not too worried about it. I did flush some star-san through the lines a couple of times in the past, but I don't think it's that important. I clean the faucet nozzles pretty often though.

masonsjax said:

I pretty much do the same, I'm not too worried about it. I did flush some star-san through the lines a couple of times in the past, but I don't think it's that important. I clean the faucet nozzles pretty often though.

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I do the same thing and never had an issue. I should probably change my lines though.