Sankey Filler/Racker DIY

Anyone ever done such a thing? I'm familiar with the way the commercial equipment works - cylcling from running caustic, air purge, rinse, air purge, sanitize, CO2 purge, fill - or something similar. Does anyone know if this could be done with lots of manual valves on a sankey tap, which would be a manual version of the auto washer/rinser available commercially? I guess I'm looking for a way to clean and fill sankey kegs instead of the standby cornys- without spending thousands.

Has this been done before? Anyone have any comments or ideas?

Thanks.

Pangea

Hey there. I use my Brutus-like set up to heat water in my HLT and PBW in my MLT to 150 then turn the kegs upside down and use a filling coupler to pump first hot water (rinse) then hot PBW up the spear, then rinse with hot water again. The liquid drains out the gas in port of the coupler. This requires taking all the check valves out of the coupler, obviously. I sanitize by just pumping star san in and pumping it out again. Its pretty darn effective, and less than $4,000 for a Mini-King. Even so, I take the spears out and visually inspect every once in a while.

Interesting. So I could just use one set of lines to the coupler/keg (one in, one out) and run to a pump. On the feed side of the pump, the line could be split with ball valves from each solution. Just start pumping caustic - then switch ball valves to draw from rinse water - then switch valves to draw from sanitizer - then switch to CO2 to purge the entire keg/coupler system prior to filling. I could then fill with the same coupler after the above cleaning/santizing regime. Sound like it would work? Thanks for the input!

Also, I'm scared to start taking spears out. I've never done it and heard its a monster of a job and you need a special tool to release pressure on a locking mechanism to be able to take out the assembly.

Taking the spear out is pretty easy. You just need a small blade screw driver and maybe a hammer. Putting it back on might be another story though

Putting it back in isn't that tough either. You need a pair of needle nose pliers and channel locks. Just work the ring around until it is just about in, grab the last part of the ring with the needle nose, then start crimping the ring into the keg with the channel locks.

removing the spear is not hard...putting it back in can be tricky, but once you have done it a few time it becomes second nature.

Hey Gordie,
how do you make certain that you are fully covering every area of the keg? Do you fill it completely full with the solutions or does it just spray around? I would love to start doing this but am not totally convinced of the process.

Someone sells (or you could find your own) snap rings that are the same size but work with easier snap ring pliers, makes opening them way easier.

I fill sanke kegs often. My drain hose from the fermenter goes right into the open sanitized sanke which I fill nearly to the top. I then insert the sanitized spear and twist it into place. The snap ring installation is facilitated by using a 1" PVC cap on the spear pressed down with a stout bar or stick hooked under the sanke rim. By pressing down on the spear with leverage to compress the o-ring, it is easy to get the last bit of the snap ring into place with pliers. A bit of practice and it can be done in a few seconds.

Cleaning involves taking out the snap ring (a quick job with one or two small screw drivers) and spear and then soaking all in a mild oxyclean solution before rinsing and inspecting.

Easy and gives peace of mind after inspecting the interior with these:

clutchdude did a nice writeup
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/installing-retaining-ring-sanke-keg-64128/

Hey Ajwillys. Basically, I ran it a few times and opened it and visually inspected before I decided I'd rely on it. The liquid drains slower than the pump will fill so you end up with a hot shower at the top of the keg and a hot soak at the bottom. I've found its most effective with 5g sankes but will work for 15.5g as well. Like I said, even though its been working well for me, I take the spear out and inspect and clean manually too. Really, the easiest way would be to rinse the keg and fill it with PBW and let it sit, but that takes a lot of time.

Whatever you do don't get a kegman kit retainer ring. The one I got off of ebay was painted steel, doesn't appear to be SS because it is already rusting in a couple spots that the paint has already chipped off. I think I'm going to go back to using the normal retaining rings, but I destroyed the original one that was in my sankey so I'll have to order some from somewhere or try to find a SS snap ring.

i took apart a sanke yeasterday. the ring is dirty but unmolested. pm an addy where usps delivers and its yours.