Keg cleaning how often?

So just kicked my first keg and about to load it up with my next brew. How often do I need to disassemble my entire keg when cleaning? Can I just scrub, rinse, soak for half hour with oxiclean and run this out through the lines, rinse well, starsan and run through lines, and fill with beer? Or should I take apart the posts and clean those every time as well??

You're going to get a whole lot of opinions on this, but I completely disassemble, clean and sanitize every time. You can't go wrong doing it that way IMO.

I disassemble every time. It probably isn't necessary but it gives me peace of mind.

I've done it both ways, thinking that just pumping cleaner and then sanitizer through it was a time saver.

But you know, it takes just as long to take it apart completely. It's fast, and doesn't really save time. The thing that sold me on taking it apart each time was when I took it apart and held the long diptube up to the light. There were pieces of crud and scum in the diptube, and pieces of hops in the poppet. I rinsed that well, and sanitized it and it was fine. I thought to myself, "EWWWW! I almost left that in there!" and never again even considered not taking them apart!

I guess that the same question could be asked of bottles. Do you clean the bottles before using? If you do, why not clean the keg?

that's what I'm thinking also. Thanks

I also dismantle and clean my kegs every time, it doesnt take long at all and allows me to inspect the o-rings and poppets. If I am going to invest all the time and care into brewing a great beer, why would I shortcut cleaning the keg it will reside in?

That 30 mins of keg cleaning will be nothing compared to possibly dumping a whole keg due to infection. It's quick and easy and definitely gives you a little piece of mind

If the first beer wasn't infected, the second one shouldn't be either.

I agree that being anal about it is always the safest but I cheat often. In that case, my process includes a hot oxyclean soak, pressurize and dispense out of both posts. Rinse well with hot water, dispense. 1 gallon of starsan goes in, shake, pressurize and dispense from both posts.

Obviously I don't do this if it was a sour beer or something big that sat around for a year.

I'm like Bobby on this. I disassemble every 4th beer or so or if a beer sat in this keg for a long period of time. I toss all the o-rings, replace & lube them at this time, too, regardless of whether they look good or not.

Bobby_M said:

If the first beer wasn't infected, the second one shouldn't be either.

I agree that being anal about it is always the safest but I cheat often. In that case, my process includes a hot oxyclean soak, pressurize and dispense out of both posts. Rinse well with hot water, dispense. 1 gallon of starsan goes in, shake, pressurize and dispense from both posts.

Obviously I don't do this if it was a sour beer or something big that sat around for a year.

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That sounds like more work then just dissembling it. It only takes a few seconds to unscrew the posts.

I disassemble it every time and soak in hot water / oxyclean. I also lube the seals with food grade grease every time after cleaning when I put it back together.