BBL_Brewer
Well-Known Member
I've been racking my brain (instead of my beer for a change) trying to think of something useful that I could contribute to this wonderful online community. I don't know if anyone has posted anything like this, but........
Cleaning/Sanitizing/Rinsing Beer Lines - Gravity Method
After beginning to keg, I found beer lines to be a major pain in the A**. I either needed an empty keg (which is just wrong to begin with) or an expensive and or custom pressurized device just to run some liquid through my beer lines. Not to mention the awful thought of wasting precious CO2. After some careful thought, I came to this conclusion.....why not let gravity do the work?
Here is my method....it may not work for everyone because of equipment differences and the like.....but it should work for a lot of you out there and could even be modified probably to fit other equipment situations. I use Ball Lock Kegs BTW.
The idea here is to open the beer faucet and disengage the beer line keg fitting seal so that liquid can be poured through the line instead of forced through. Pretty simple really when you think about it.
Check it out:
I start by rotating my faucet so that it is oriented upside down. This way I can pour the liquid through the faucet side. You could shove a piece of tubing on the faucet if your equipment will not allow you to rotate the faucet. See first pic below.
The big trick here is to disengage the seal on the beer line keg fitting. Mine happens to be ball lock.....don't know if this would work for pin lock....I've never seen one. I take a wire lug (I think that's what they are called) and put it upside down in the keg fitting and press down with my thumb. This works like a charm and with very little effort. You could use anything you have on hand that would work though. I used my thumb the first time around, which actually worked, but it was a little too hard on the ole thumb if you ask me. See second pic below.
If the beer line is dirty, I always start by draining the residual beer from the line and a quick tap water rinse. You can do this by opening the faucet, kneeling to the ground and then hold the keg fitting over a waste container while disengaging the seal (see fifth pic below). The idea is to have the inlet above the outlet so that gravity can do the work (see third pic below). Once the beer is drained, take your free hand and reach up to the faucet and pour some water through to rinse (see first pic below).
After that.....do your thing. Clean/Sanitize/Rinse.....you name it.
Here's a big pointer you will need. When filling the line to clean or sanitize you want to get all the air bubbles out so that the cleaner or sanitizer is in contact with the whole inner surface of the tubing. Here's what I do.......do just as before and kneel to the ground. Have the faucet open and then disengage the keg fitting seal. Pour some cleaner/sanitizer through the line utill it starts to come out of the fitting and then stop. Stand up and shut the faucet off. Now, open the keggerator and hold the beer line strait up. Shake around on the beer line and work any trapped air bubbles towards the keg fitting. Once you have the liquid on the faucet side and the air on the keg fitting side, you do what I call the water fall. I couldn't take a picture of this becasue it takes two hands. Besides that you would really need a video to get the full effect. While standing up, have a cup of sanitizer or cleaner ready. Open the faucet, hold the other end of the beer line (ie the keg fitting) up off the ground but not too high and then disengage the keg fitting seal. What you want to do is after disengaging the seal start raising the beer line until liquid starts to pour out of the faucet. When this happens, freeze, you have found the pivot point. At this point, the faucet is open, the keg fitting seal is open, all the air is on the keg fitting side of the line and liquid is all the way to the brim of the faucet. Now, start pouring your cleaner/sanitizer into the faucet while at the same time slowly lowering the keg fitting towards the ground so that gravity forces only liquid (no air) through the inlet side of the line and purges/fills the other end. You should be pouring at a faster rate than lowering the beer line. You actually want the cleaner/sanitizer overflowing from the faucet throughout this entire process. This will ensure that only liquid enters the line and no air bubbles. Keep pouring/lowering until liquid shoots out the keg fitting and stop. Shut off the faucet and then check to make sure there are no air bubbles. It takes a liitle practice, but once you get the hang of it it's a two minute process. If you end up with air bubbles just repeat until you get it right.
I find this method super easy and time efficent once you get the hang of it and face it......almost no equipment or money involved.
I hope this helps some folks.
Cleaning/Sanitizing/Rinsing Beer Lines - Gravity Method
After beginning to keg, I found beer lines to be a major pain in the A**. I either needed an empty keg (which is just wrong to begin with) or an expensive and or custom pressurized device just to run some liquid through my beer lines. Not to mention the awful thought of wasting precious CO2. After some careful thought, I came to this conclusion.....why not let gravity do the work?
Here is my method....it may not work for everyone because of equipment differences and the like.....but it should work for a lot of you out there and could even be modified probably to fit other equipment situations. I use Ball Lock Kegs BTW.
The idea here is to open the beer faucet and disengage the beer line keg fitting seal so that liquid can be poured through the line instead of forced through. Pretty simple really when you think about it.
Check it out:
I start by rotating my faucet so that it is oriented upside down. This way I can pour the liquid through the faucet side. You could shove a piece of tubing on the faucet if your equipment will not allow you to rotate the faucet. See first pic below.
The big trick here is to disengage the seal on the beer line keg fitting. Mine happens to be ball lock.....don't know if this would work for pin lock....I've never seen one. I take a wire lug (I think that's what they are called) and put it upside down in the keg fitting and press down with my thumb. This works like a charm and with very little effort. You could use anything you have on hand that would work though. I used my thumb the first time around, which actually worked, but it was a little too hard on the ole thumb if you ask me. See second pic below.
If the beer line is dirty, I always start by draining the residual beer from the line and a quick tap water rinse. You can do this by opening the faucet, kneeling to the ground and then hold the keg fitting over a waste container while disengaging the seal (see fifth pic below). The idea is to have the inlet above the outlet so that gravity can do the work (see third pic below). Once the beer is drained, take your free hand and reach up to the faucet and pour some water through to rinse (see first pic below).
After that.....do your thing. Clean/Sanitize/Rinse.....you name it.
Here's a big pointer you will need. When filling the line to clean or sanitize you want to get all the air bubbles out so that the cleaner or sanitizer is in contact with the whole inner surface of the tubing. Here's what I do.......do just as before and kneel to the ground. Have the faucet open and then disengage the keg fitting seal. Pour some cleaner/sanitizer through the line utill it starts to come out of the fitting and then stop. Stand up and shut the faucet off. Now, open the keggerator and hold the beer line strait up. Shake around on the beer line and work any trapped air bubbles towards the keg fitting. Once you have the liquid on the faucet side and the air on the keg fitting side, you do what I call the water fall. I couldn't take a picture of this becasue it takes two hands. Besides that you would really need a video to get the full effect. While standing up, have a cup of sanitizer or cleaner ready. Open the faucet, hold the other end of the beer line (ie the keg fitting) up off the ground but not too high and then disengage the keg fitting seal. What you want to do is after disengaging the seal start raising the beer line until liquid starts to pour out of the faucet. When this happens, freeze, you have found the pivot point. At this point, the faucet is open, the keg fitting seal is open, all the air is on the keg fitting side of the line and liquid is all the way to the brim of the faucet. Now, start pouring your cleaner/sanitizer into the faucet while at the same time slowly lowering the keg fitting towards the ground so that gravity forces only liquid (no air) through the inlet side of the line and purges/fills the other end. You should be pouring at a faster rate than lowering the beer line. You actually want the cleaner/sanitizer overflowing from the faucet throughout this entire process. This will ensure that only liquid enters the line and no air bubbles. Keep pouring/lowering until liquid shoots out the keg fitting and stop. Shut off the faucet and then check to make sure there are no air bubbles. It takes a liitle practice, but once you get the hang of it it's a two minute process. If you end up with air bubbles just repeat until you get it right.
I find this method super easy and time efficent once you get the hang of it and face it......almost no equipment or money involved.
I hope this helps some folks.
