Planning an automated Sankey wash station

I really need to make this design work, but I'm hitting roadblock after roadblock on my design. My need is this: Hook up a dirty sankey keg to a wash-coupler, fill a reservoir of cleaner, and a seperate reservoir of sanitizer, and then just hit the GO button. 10-15 minutes later I want the keg ready to fill.

This will involve a 1/8hp march pump, several (something like 10 with my current design) solenoid valves, a hot water source, a breathable draining reservoir, and a very smart process controller that will let me sequence lots of steps. This is where I need some help at this point. I'm not that familiar with programming and different models of process controllers. I've used the BCS for many things over the past year, but I don't think it is suited for this purpose. I need something a little more open-ended.

Any suggestions on a highly customizable process controller that will provide enough outputs? I would need to control lots of valves, the pump, and receive input from 4 or 5 float switches. Also a timer would be necessary.

Thank you for any suggestions or help in advance.

Check out the Arduino for you controller.

10 solenoid valves and 5 float switches seems kinda excessive. Have a schematic drawn up?

I think you will need more pump than that to clean a keg. I have a corney keg cleaner that works well but I use a 1/4 or 1/3 hp sump pump. I think it pumps about 1000 gal/hour.

stevehaun said:

I think you will need more pump than that to clean a keg. I have a corney keg cleaner that works well but I use a 1/4 or 1/3 hp sump pump. I think it pumps about 1000 gal/hour.

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I put my sanke's on my corny keg cleaner. I have the spear removed because I use them for fermenting, not kegging.

I don't think you can properly clean a sanke without removing the spear.

JonW said:

I put my sanke's on my corny keg cleaner. I have the spear removed because I use them for fermenting, not kegging.

I don't think you can properly clean a sanke without removing the spear.

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It can be done, I've personally done it for breweries.

If a brewery does it that way, I would have to imagine they use a very high pressure pump to overcome the restricted flow through the sanke coupler.

I would also guess that the sanke cleaning attachment is not even a normal sanke coupler.

Can you give some background on what type of cleaning apparatus was used? It could help the OP in his quest (and me to learn).

These systems seem to be quite normal in brewpubs. Have you thought about contacting a local one to see what they use?

It was a standard coupler. From my understanding of it, when you attached the coupler it sprayed very warm water first at a high pressure, drained, followed by a large amount of caustic solution, then drained again, followed by a another rinse of water and drained. The entire cycle took roughly 4 minutes, just enough time to fill a clean keg and get the next one ready to fill, to start the whole cycle over again. Gotta say cleaning and filling kegs for a brewery was some hardcore work, but fun too.

Something to keep in mind too, when a brewery is cleaning their kegs, their beer has been filtered, there for, there isn't as much gunk and deposits to be cleaned out.

Correct, the coupler is a special clean/fill coupler with shut-offs on each port, and unrestricted 1/2" bore throughout. It is sold by Sabco. I am currently using the pump manually, it is a march "nano-brewery" pump, and does quite well by siphoning 3 gallons of hot cleaner into the keg, flipping it over and just pumping it out the gas port and into the beer port. I can tell that it is getting complete coverage, as the entire keg surface immediately becomes hot.

I wanted to avoid 2 pumps if I could, but I'm thinking it may simplify things a bit. They're a bit pricey... Solenoid valves I can get for around 20 apiece. Having 10 of them is cheaper than another pump of this type.

I'm not there yet on the schematic.. been through several versions and each has a flaw, mostly involving venting... I'll get there.

Arduino looks good, or what about brewtroller? Any other good controller options welcome. Thanks for the replies.

stevehaun said:

I think you will need more pump than that to clean a keg. I have a corney keg cleaner that works well but I use a 1/4 or 1/3 hp sump pump. I think it pumps about 1000 gal/hour.

Click to expand...

It's the higher power march brewing pump, it is quite powerful. But that's the cool thing about cleaning a sankey with the spear in place. It doesn't take much push to get the fluid to cascade down the sides of the keg since the diptube is engaged at the bottom of the keg. The sankey keg is designed to be cleaned in place easily, with the gas port also allowing all liquid to drain.

Design it to utilize one of the plastic laundry tubs with threaded drain, and route pressurized supply over the side or through the bottom. Add 2 gallons water to start, caustic to clean, drain, refill with hot water and add peroxyacetic sanitizer, drain sanitizer and let keg drain. A second manifold could be built for bottles or growlers without changing the rest of the system.

HIM_Tattoos said:

It was a standard coupler. From my understanding of it, when you attached the coupler it sprayed very warm water first at a high pressure, drained, followed by a large amount of caustic solution, then drained again, followed by a another rinse of water and drained. The entire cycle took roughly 4 minutes, just enough time to fill a clean keg and get the next one ready to fill, to start the whole cycle over again. Gotta say cleaning and filling kegs for a brewery was some hardcore work, but fun too.

Something to keep in mind too, when a brewery is cleaning their kegs, their beer has been filtered, there for, there isn't as much gunk and deposits to be cleaned out.

Click to expand...

I to washed kegs for a small micro for years. The setup we used had a resevoir of caustic that was heated with a hot water element. The sanke connectors were just standard sankes had the ball pulled out. The rinse water (fresh, no pump) was fed in through the beer line out port (top side), and then the gas acted as the drain. Once well rinsed we would pump caustic in and then drain, and rinse again. The final step was a CO2 fill which also helped push out any small pools of water. Ultimately there were 4 valves to worry about, the water in which fed into the (in) manifold, the pump valve which also fed into the (in) manifold from the otherside. On the out side the there is a valve to direct the caustic back into the resevoir, and a valve that dumps into the rinse water down the drain. Works pretty smooth, we would do up to 4 kegs at a time on the setup. Honestly, it should be possible to clean a keg with one good pump, and 4 or so valves, even in auto. No need to over engineer it.

My ugly mug clean a batch of kegs, while on vacation last October:

OMG, I don't even use sankes but now I have to build one of those wash stations. What was the caustic that you used? What's going to happen is I'm going to build a commercial homebrewery if I don't stay away from this board.