quickest way to clean/sanitize corney kegs

Maybe I'm overthinking this but it seems like everyone uses a crapload of cleaner/sanitizer to clean their kegs. They fill at least 1/2 full on every video I've seen.

I'm thinking that about 1/2 gal of oxyclean followed by 1/2 gal of starsan should do the job. add water and cleaner. Put the lid on. Shake like hell. Suck a bit through the dip tube and run it through a couple of times. Rinse and GO.

Anyone else have any ideas for this process?

Also, any great ways to clean beer lines without having to recarb the keg to push cleaner through?

Cheers!

Well, I don't really "clean" my kegs that often. Oh, sure, I tear them down and rinse with hot water but I don't really need to do much scrubbing.

When I do, I use maybe gallon of water and a small scoop of oxyclean. I'm pretty skinny and small, so I stick my arm in the keg and use a soft cloth and rub throughout the keg with the solution. Then rise, and sanitize. When I sanitize, I have a saved jug of water with 1/4 ounce of star-san mixed it. I reuse it, so I just rinse well with the star-san, pour it back into the jug, and I"m done. I do tear the kegs down, so part of the sanitizing is putting star-san through the diptubes and on the posts inside and otu.

Take the keg completely apart. Wash with Oxyclean and a wash rag. Yeah, stick your arm in there and clean it. Rinse everything well.

I put about 2 gallons of sani solution into the first keg. Slosh it around real well and then dump half the solution into my second keg and the rest into a Wall Paper tray that holds my Auto-siphon hose and all the fittings and tubes from the keg. Put the keg back together sans lid.

Slosh second keg and do the same with the parts.

Every time the keg runs dry, I go outside and use the hose with the high pressure setting nozzle and blast all the junk away. Then I usually do the typical 1/2 gal oxyclean mixture followed by 1/2 gallon starsan, pushing each mixture through my kegerator to clean out the dip tube and my kegerator simultaneously.

Happy brewing!

If I'm 'hot swapping' kegs (one blows empty and I immediately refill it) I just rinse, quick sanitize and refill.

If it sits a while I clean it first, and store with 1 gal of star-san inside.

I have a dip tube brush, and I put the epoxy nozzles in my dip tubes so those do need a little light cleaning as they accumulate traces of sediment.

If the keg is particularly dirty, you can use one of the corny keg cleaners that you connect to a drill... I picked one up and it works great on corny kegs as well as 1/6 barrel Sanke kegs. I'll probably get the one made for carboy's soon too... With that, you can use just a quart, or two, of cleaner and get that sucker done up nice and fast. Just rinse the cleaner out as you would normally, and sanitize as normal. To sanitize, I use about 2 quarts of mixed StarSan in the keg, and shake the hell out of it. I leave the StarSan in the keg until I'm ready to use it. Usually, I'll sanitize a day or two before I'll be using it (if not the day I'll be using it)... Of course, I'm fermenting/aging in my kegs right now, not serving from them.

inchrisin said:

Also, any great ways to clean beer lines without having to recarb the keg to push cleaner through?

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I use this to clean out my lines: an $8 yard sprayer, a plastic barb fitting and a ball lock post. Total investment of about $20 as opposed to $50 from northern brewer.

Forgot to attach the pic...

malkore said:

If I'm 'hot swapping' kegs (one blows empty and I immediately refill it) I just rinse, quick sanitize and refill.

If it sits a while I clean it first, and store with 1 gal of star-san inside.

I have a dip tube brush, and I put the epoxy nozzles in my dip tubes so those do need a little light cleaning as they accumulate traces of sediment.

Click to expand...

+100 If im hot swapping somtimes i just rinse with no sanitation, alcohol sanitizes right:cross: I only break'em down about every 4th-5th brew with oxyclean!

For me it is a rinse, a short scrub if needed, then into the autoclave at work. :rockin: I mostly do this because, well, I can, plus I do make a few sour beers, so this way I don''t have to have dedicated sour beer kegs.

Wow, you autoclave entire kegs? Hard core! Must be a big beast.

I don't think of them as large, just normal sized. Pretty typical size for everywhere I've worked. Not those little bench top jobbies in medical offices and tattoo parlors.

I also will periodically bring my plate chiller in and run it through. Same for all of my tubing, pretty much every part of my system except the pumps and fermenters.