Cleaning commercial kegs

What do people use to clean the inside of commercial kegs that are used keging purposes?

Caustic, Acid and sanitizer.

I got mine fresh out of circulation. I simply rinsed it out 3 or 4 times with water. The last time I completely disassembled it and rinsed everything in water. Before kegging I put sanitizer in the keg and swished it around a lot.

Can the column that delivers CO2 and Beer be disassembled?

When I first get them, I clean them with oxyclean and a few nights soak. The column can be completely disassembled but you will get all the areas exposed by just pressing the ball down with a C-clamp.

I rinse them several times, then put them away. When I go to fill them, they get another rinse and then sanitized.

Tuzlo said:

Can the column that delivers CO2 and Beer be disassembled?

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yes, you need to compress the spring and turn the notched retaining washer and the stem will come apart. A little tricky, but if you are handy and persistant it can be done w/ basic tools.

brewboy5150 said:

Caustic, Acid and sanitizer.

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Just don't mix the caustic and the acid.:cross:

If I were cleaning a keg for this purpose, I would use either PBW or caustic soda (aka, lye, aka sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide). I've read reports that PBW has trouble with beerstone though. I believe most major breweries use caustic soda (potassium hydroxide) or PBW, or an acid wash. You should be able to find 100% lye at a hardware store in the plumbing/drain cleaner section. I found it at Lowes. Obviously you need to take PPE precautions when using. Then to make sure, I would fashion some sort of mechanical cleaner (brush, scotch-brite... on a stick) to reach down there and remove any residuals.

This thread is relevant to my interests, as i've just aquired a half barrel keg to make into a keggle.

the catch is, it's filled halfway with miller lite....from 10 years ago.

vav said:

This thread is relevant to my interests, as i've just aquired a half barrel keg to make into a keggle.

the catch is, it's filled halfway with miller lite....from 10 years ago.

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I was in the same situation you were. Here's what I did:

After I cut the top off, and rinsed it out (wait until you get a whiff of what's inside ) I put about 10 gallons of water in it and brought it to a boil for 15 minutes. After the boil, I added oxiclean and let it soak for about 24 hours. Then I scrubbed it with Bar Keepers Friend (you can find it at Walmart or many hardware stores carry it).

Looks like new after that.

vav said:

This thread is relevant to my interests, as i've just aquired a half barrel keg to make into a keggle.

the catch is, it's filled halfway with miller lite....from 10 years ago.

Click to expand...

depressurize it and cut the top off with an angle grinder. With the right cutting bit, it should take about a half-hour

This is getting a little OT. I was looking for ways to clean a keg which I intend on using to keg the beer in not making into a kettle.

Tuzlo said:

This is getting a little OT. I was looking for ways to clean a keg which I intend on using to keg the beer in not making into a kettle.

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Yeah, that is what I do with mine. My comments were directed towards that purpose. A simple Oxyclean soak for 3-4 days works really well on just about anything. After it looks clean, I do it one more time for a few more days.

After kicking a keg, I clean it within a couple days and have never had a problem getting them clean. With the 1/6 barrel kegs, you can see everything in there. If it works for carboy's, it should work even better for kegs.

Low and behold there are no stores where I live that carry Oxy-Clean

Where do you live? No generics either? I buy it at Target/Wal-Mart but I thought they had it at grocery stores, home improvement, etc...

Eastern Canada.

Walmart nothing
Canadian tire nothing
home depot nopthing

Im gonna try grocery and drug stores tomorrow

Of all the refillable beer containers currently in use, the modern beer keg is certainly one of the most difficult to analyze with standard quality control methods.