Poll - How well do you clean your kegs between fills ?

I totally disassemble everything (including poppets), and soak in Oxyclean overnight, then rinse 3 times, dry, lube and reassemble, then rinse out with Starsan. I think I might be totally over doing it.

Aw, you can never be too sanitary

I just had a keg of Imperial Honey Stout kick last night (I actually went "Awwww" - it was a very sad moment for me).

Here's what I did: pulled the keg out of the keezer and took it up to the kitchen. Set the relief valve wide open, popped the lid, and wrenched off the Out post. Rinsed the heck out of the keg with the hottest tap water, pulled the Out dip tube and gave it a good cleaning inside with a tube brush. Gave the whole insides a cleaning with dish washing soap and a sponge, then rinsed it thoroughly.

Reassembled the Out hardware, totally filled the keg with a standard Star-San solution, put the lid back on, took it back downstairs, stuck my spare gas line on it, put 30 psi on the keg, removed the gas QD, sprayed the lid and posts with Star-San solution to check for leaks, gave both post poppets a quick "pop" to get the Star-San up into the dip tubes, and set the keg with the other idles kegs.

That's my routine and I'm sticking to it

Cheers!

I just rinse out good. Fill keg with hot tap water and let it sit for a few (making sure the dip tube gets filled). Dump/dry/sanitize/fill. Occasionally (every three or four uses) I'll grease the poppets and o-rings. I do lube the posts every time though so the quick disconnects go on and come off easy.

I usually do a 2-step process:

a) Fill keg w/ water & add a few scoops of PBW. Shake the living hell out of it, attach lines & send a few shots through. Let stand for 10-20 minutes, shoot some into my handy Rubbermaid tub every few minutes.

b) Repeat same process, but with no-rinse sanitizer. Drain about half the keg into the Rubbermaid tub, disconnect lines & tie them in a knot so they don't sit on the floor of the kegerator.

Dun.

i keep them cold and underpressre after they are empty and i just spray them out and fill them back up

I answered "Rinse, Sanitize, Fill (No disassembly)", because that is what I normally do.

Sometimes if the beer that just kicked was very clear and clean, and I have a beer ready to fill it back up soon I dont even rinse or anything, just pop the top and rack the new beer into it.

Sometimes if the beer was very cruddy, or I noticed some hop particles in a couple pints, I will disconnect everything and soak in Oxy then Starsan. Sometimes I do this anyhow just as due diligence.

But usually its just a rinse with very hot tap water, then fill about 1/4 full with Starsan solution, shake, let some of the starsan leak out the poppets, dump and then rack new beer in.

I disassemble, clean with soap and water (using a brush to get inside the dip tubes) and rinse well. I reassemble and store until ready to use at which time I sanitize with StarSan and grease the orings. I think it's REALLY important to make sure the inside of the dip tubes get cleaned. I had some funky notes in my brews before I bought a brush that could get "up there."

Rinse out yeast, fill with oxy water, let sit overnight (longer when the weather is cool). Rinse twice, clean the lid well.

I don't sanitize until I'm ready to fill, then it gets a dose of Star San.

I probably need to put cleaning the dip tubes and poppets on some kind of schedule, but they only get cleaned when I detect a problem now.

I built an adapter that hooks to my hot water faucet and then to the two posts. I shoot hot water into the keg this way, and have oxyclean in there. I put a gallon of water in, disconnect, shake the **** out of it, rinse a couple times and starsan it. I rarely disassemble unless there is a known issue with hops in the poppet.

1. depressurize
2. Rinse with hot water
3. Fill half way with hot water, add pbw
4. shake to combine
5. pressurize and purge poppets
6. rinse a few times
7. add water and starsan
8. pressurize and put it back in the keezer until needed

I break it all down and soak the post, poppets, gas tube, and lid in oxyclean. Fill the keg with water and oxyclean and shake the hell out of it and then scrub with a toilet brush (dedicated to brewing) rinse, dry and put away until Im ready to fill it. Then it gets Iodophor. What im lacking in is my cleaning of my beer lines. Some times I run hot water through them, sometimes not. I really need to stick to a good regiment for those.

:rockin:Fermenters always waiting for next beer then it's, Rinse,disassemble, clean, starsan, fill. Pipeline means always having full kegs.............Also clean tap faucet and flush line....no such thing as to clean or sanitized for my beer.

+1 on cleaning the faucets/beer lines every time. I also put a very light film of keg lube on my moving faucet parts to keep them from sticking.

A few cups of just boiled water in the keg, shake and pour out. I fill half way with warm water and a scoop of Oxiclean or similar and let it sit for 1/2 hour, then flip upside down**. I then hook back up to tap and push 2 quarts through the tap. Drain, rinse and run some sanitizer through the keg and the taps. Then flush tap and lines with CO2. Drain keg, squirt some StarSan and close it up til next use.

Sometimes I will pull the post/poppet and give it a soak, especially if the beer had pellet dry hopping and some bits made it past the sentries.


**with cover on

Pull it out of the kegerator, rinse, no disassemble, starsan shake, pressure up, hook up my outline to my faucet force all that stasan through outline through the faucet. Shabam!

Done

I completely dissamble and do the Oxi soak for the keg and all parts. I also soak the rings and reuse them. I replace them when they get worn.

I rinse well and do a pbw soak. Then I run pbw through the lines and down tube. Then star san and run through the lines again. Every 5 batches or so I completely disassemble and clean thoroughly.

I rinse with hot water. Fill with pbw solution and let sit 30 minutes. Take to kegerator and empty keg through tap to clean lines and faucet. Fill with star san and run through lines as well. Fill keg with waiting beer.

mrduna01 said:

I rinse with hot water. Fill with pbw solution and let sit 30 minutes. Take to kegerator and empty keg through tap to clean lines and faucet. Fill with star san and run through lines as well. Fill keg with waiting beer.

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This is something that I always tell myself I should do but never actually do it....doesnt waste oxy/pbw/starsan or CO2.

Usually I disassemble the keg and rinse with hot water and brush as needed. Then I use a spray bottle of starsan to spray everything and reassemble and fill with the next batch. I do an overnight oxyclean soak as necessary or depending on how motivated I am.

I always disassemble though. Even the ball lock disconnects. I've been meaning to try some keg lube, is it worth the trouble?

I keep ales in the ball locks and lagers in the converted pinlocks. I hose out and put a couple of quarts of san star, hook to CO2, purge, san star the hose line and from the keg, and stack it.

I voted with the majority. Except I rinse, run PBW through the keg and lines, rinse, then run starsan through the keg and lines. I also spray all the connectors with StarSan, then refill or store. If stored I run sanitizer through again before filling.

Is there an advantage to using PBW instead of Oxyclean on kegs? I would think that any Oxyclean residue should rinse off the SS pretty easily. Is Oxyclean Free necessary or is the regular, scented type ok?

mikeal said:

Is there an advantage to using PBW instead of Oxyclean on kegs? I would think that any Oxyclean residue should rinse off the SS pretty easily. Is Oxyclean Free necessary or is the regular, scented type ok?

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Only advantage I know of is that PBW can be used with hard water. Do not use the scented oxy. This is based on me using and having both cleaners.

I generally take it all apart and oxisoak everything then rinse well and sanitize before re-assembling.

It takes a little time for me to kick a keg, so it's not that big a deal. If so I'd probably just open the top and wipe with a sponge and hot water and then drain and sanitize.