Mold Explosion

So my kegorator got unpluged for a few days/weeks who really knows, I have a chest freezer with a collar. I have 4 cornie kegs set up to a CO2 manifold and to perlik faucets. At the time I only had one keg on tap, and all of the other gas and serving lines were just dangeling inside of the kegorator.

Lastnight I went to open everything up and found mold everwhere. My question to you guys is how would you go about cleaning everything. Do I need to go crazy and replace all the tubing and connectors? Can I just take everything apart, soak in oxyclean and then flow gallons of star san through the lines?

Are the inside of the lines comprimized since they were not connected to a keg?

Any help or suggestions would be awesome,

Adam

I don't think the inside of the lines will be an issue. You may want to boil your ball/pin lock fittings and then reattatch them. Your lines just sound like the need a good soak with star san though to get everything off the outside. To be safe, you may want to just replace the lines....since they're cheap.

I had a small patch of mold starting last year.

I took everything out and wash it down with bleach water. You can wash down the inside of the freezer with a mop.

Hoses are relatively cheap enough so I would replace them to be safe.

Mine's on a dolly so I just moved it over the drain in the garage and pulled the drain plug...too easy...:rockin:

Heard a podcast from Charlie Tally who basically stated that Bleach was misleading as far as killing power. He said it's great for making things white, but you really need to add some white vinegar, or some other acid to make it a great killer.

That's probably what I'd use for cleaning the mold. Maybe hit it twice.

Homercidal said:

Heard a podcast from Charlie Tally who basically stated that Bleach was misleading as far as killing power. He said it's great for making things white, but you really need to add some white vinegar, or some other acid to make it a great killer.

That's probably what I'd use for cleaning the mold. Maybe hit it twice.

Click to expand...

Don't know where he gets his info, but a 10% bleach solution is a GREAT way to kill microorganisms. It needs about 20 mins to really do it's magic and shouldn't be used on metal for long periods of time as it will eat away at it.

Gremlyn1 said:

Don't know where he gets his info, but a 10% bleach solution is a GREAT way to kill microorganisms. It needs about 20 mins to really do it's magic and shouldn't be used on metal for long periods of time as it will eat away at it.

Click to expand...

Maybe came from him being a Chemical Engineer ?

He does state that bleach needs to have an acid added to it to become effective. Clorox brand has some acid added to it to produce hypochlorite and hypochlorous acid which makes it a very efficient killer trade off is lower shelf life.

Cheap bleach not so much as the main intent is to whiten clothes. This is why when you use tilex or other bathroom cleaners on mold it comes back in a few days. Ya sure you whitened the mold but didn't kill it.

1 oz bleach to 5 gallons of water mix and then add the 1 oz white vinegar will become a very effective sanitizer

you can listen to the whole story here

Basic Brewing Radio March 29, 2007 - Sanitizing with Bleach and Star San