Removing "Cola" Odor From Corny Kegs?

I just got my first set of corny kegs in today. Everything is great about them except they smell like cola inside. Does anyone have any input on how to remove that cola smell? I didn't want to use anything on them that would affect the taste of the beer. Thanks.

Take it completly apart and soak everything for 24 hours in Oxiclean. Works like a champ. Replace all gaskets.

Just clean them with a good, hot soak in PBW and change out the rubber O-rings. That'll do it. I also like to run a quart of diluted BLC (according to directions) through it.


TL

My personal experience is wash it two or three times really well. I then fill it up with hot water and add backing powder (sorry, I don't measure, just add) and let it sit over night. Dump, rinse/wash again and repeat if necessary.

EdWort said:

Take it completly apart and soak everything for 24 hours in Oxiclean. Works like a champ. Replace all gaskets.

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+1, the only thing I don't use OC on is my draft system. Everything else gets the soak...

no not baking powder....baking SODA. it works pretty good to remove cola odors.

Kilted Brewer said:

My personal experience is wash it two or three times really well. I then fill it up with hot water and add backing powder (sorry, I don't measure, just add) and let it sit over night. Dump, rinse/wash again and repeat if necessary.

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This is what I have done and it worked great. I used maybe a cup of baking soda.

I read that Oxiclean and PBW eats (carod, pit) stainless. For a short clean time would be ok but a 24 hour soak would hurt your kegs right? Or maybe I have no clue what I`m talking about.

Let me know

Later

bandit77 said:

I read that Oxiclean and PBW eats (carod, pit) stainless. For a short clean time would be ok but a 24 hour soak would hurt your kegs right? Or maybe I have no clue what I`m talking about.

Let me know

Later

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Nope, Diversol (Sani-Brew), eats stainless. PBW and Oxyclean are safe.

i fill keg with hot h2o and oxiclean and soak over night, swap all the o rings and poppets, sanitize the next day, turn over to drip dry, and then seal 'em up and hit 'em with a little gas if i'm not using immediately.

Star San Removes all beer odor from my buckets like a champ. Let it soak for a 10 minutes or so.

Borax (in the laundry section at most stores) works quite well and is cheap. I use half a cups worth per keg.

I use Oxyclean (actually, the store brand knock-off), but only for ~ an hour soak. As others have stated, take apart everything, soak the removed parts and replace all the O-rings. Give it all a good rinse and you'll be good to go. About to do this myself with the four kegs just I bought from insco2!

Sloppy Sam said:

Nope, Diversol (Sani-Brew), eats stainless. PBW and Oxyclean are safe.

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thanks for clearing that up

as others have said, you really need to change all the o-rings including the large one on the lid. also soak the poppets (also noted above) if you do not plan to replace them.

this link helped me alot when i got started kegging.

http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.1/flemingsb1.html

Yeah, don't reuse the rubbers (and not just for kegging).

Are there any tricks for cleaning new corny kegs? I've done a couple soaks using PBW, but it still seems to have an odor.

Shux said:

Are there any tricks for cleaning new corny kegs? I've done a couple soaks using PBW, but it still seems to have an odor.

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If it's new it shouldn't really have any odors

If it's used, the rubber o-rings can hold soda smells quite well, so I'd try swapping all 5 of them out if you haven't already.

I go with a heavy load of heat, steam, PBW, and Oxiclean.

I got with a soaking in the PBW/Oxi with boiling hot water, followed by a heavy regiment of steaming (from a hand steamer) and rinsing.

I steam with the lids off so the steam can carry away more of the odor (As well as the odor from the cleaning agents)

It works out pretty good ^_^

Oxyclean soaks do it for me.

Some soda flavors seem to be a bit more of a pain than other and may require more soaking.

I got one keg that must have had grape soda in it. Took 3 24 hours soaks to clean it out.

- Replace all rubber parts, including: cover o-ring, poppets, post o-rings, dip tube o-rings and pressure relief valve. All these have rubber components that absorb odors and flavors.

- Soak inside of keg with hot water and 1/2 scoop oxyclean free.

Never had an odor get through this.

zachattack said:

If it's new it shouldn't really have any odors

If it's used, the rubber o-rings can hold soda smells quite well, so I'd try swapping all 5 of them out if you haven't already.

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I think it is the new gaskets and probably the rubber handles that I'm smelling. Hard to really tell. I will soak the gaskets separately and hope for the best.