Cleaning Sanke with BB's?

Hello all!

I'd like to start making 10g batches of some good house beers. I've acquired a Sanke keg to use as my fermentor. I don't plan on modifying it at all, but have thought about the inability to scrub the inside. Then I had an idea (uh-oh).

What about throwing a hand full (of five) of Stainless steel BB's inside with the cleaning solutions, cap it off, put it on it's side, roll that bad boy and let the BB's "scrub" the inside? Other than the obvious 'how to' of rolling it for 5 or 10 minutes (I'll come up with some kind or rig) do you think the BB's would damage the keg at all....such as scraps that could harbor bacteria or anything like that? Getting them out wouldn't be very difficult and they, of course, would be reusable.

Anything I'm overlooking?

Thanks,
Paul

Might be better off with a rag or something that will have more contact if you want to go that route. I have a feeling the bb method will not be very good at cleaning it.

Hot water, pbw and a pump to recirculate will get it clean. One of my brew buddies uses the pump method to clean his kegs and he makes some very good beer.

What kind of pump are you talking...Like a high pressure pump?

Haha I've used this method on motorcycle gas tanks for rust removal... It will work statistically... but it may take a while, and a tumbler that size would be a site to see.

Sump pump and a pipe with a sprayer at the tip or a cap fitting with holes drilled in.

You put the pump in a bucket and the keg over the pump with the sprayer head attached.

Like this guy has here.
http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Heated-Keg-and-Carboy-Cleaner

Just soak it with PBW or Oxyclean. It works for Better Bottles why not kegs.

Seriously, I've gotten many 5 gallon Sanke kegs and they were all VERY nasty inside when I got them. Oxyclean for a few days had them sparkling every time.

A length of ss chain will work better than the bb's which will just roll around. A chain will have a definite scouring action and I've seen this method praised on a Distilling forum.

It wouldn't take much imagination to replace the tub of a cement mixer with your sanke to provide the "round & round". I know of other auto restorers who have done this with car gas tanks.

Someone here made a carboy scrubber out of pvc pipe and lawn trimmer string. Powered by a drill, it looked interesting for sure. It gave me the idea to use a bit of trimmer string in my drill for bottles that look questionable on the bottom, before their bath in oxyclean.

A good long soak w/ oxi clean will work wonders...a "new" of course toilet brush fastened on a stick would also scrub up top. I've had decent results stuffing a rag in a carboy and swishing it around w/ just a little bit of cleaning solution.

I am fermenting a 5 gallon batch in a 15.5 gallon keg right now. First time I have used it and seems to be working great but the cleaning process will be interesting. My plan is to spray the inside walls with a hose and then soak with oxyclean for a few days.

Soak with oxyclean then spray with a hose. I use sankes to ferment and this method works well. If you rinse them out right after racking the wort they come clean without much effort. I then fill them up with water and boil them to sanitize.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've read up on the different methods of cleaning (Oxyclean looking like the best method). I guess I was looking more for comments on the original question.

Anyone else using a mechanical cleaning method? Any issues?