How do you keep your taps clean and mold-free?

I've been kegging for about a year now. I really like it, although I find I drink more beer than when I was bottling ... oh well.

However, I've been having trouble keeping my taps clean. I have three in my kegerator, but don't go through kegs all that quickly. That means a given tap might go a week or two without being used. Unfortunately, my setup is in my damp MI basement, and there's a lot of mold spores floating around. The leftover drips that hang out after pouring a glass grow mold like it's going out of style, and it's driving me crazy! If I don't clean it off, my first pour of an evening will have mold in it from the end of my tap. Nasty.

I've been kicking around the idea of getting the black rubber tap condoms (for lack of a better word) and filling them with cheap vodka between pours. Anybody try something like this, or have a better solution?

Spray bottle of StarSan- spray it up into the faucets after every pour.

are you using forward sealing faucets? Those solved a lot of my problems

flyangler18 said:

Spray bottle of StarSan- spray it up into the faucets after every pour.

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I use forward seal faucets and I just started doing this.

one forward seal, two regular. Will be slowly replacing with all forward seals as finances permit. I like the starsan spray idea. Don't know why that hadn't occurred to me... Thanks for the suggestion!

I've never cleaned my beer lines or taps. There's always beer going through them...

I haven't had a mold problem yet with my Perlicks. I remove and soak the nozzles every other week and spray a little hot water up in there. When the keg kicks, I soak the whole faucet in a hot oxyclean bath for 30 minutes and rinse well, then I'll run sanitizer through under pressure before racking any beer into that empty keg.

I routinely, at least once a day, pass a solution of Hop Oils, and fermented liquefied Malted Barley with varied concentrations of Ethanol, Esters, and Phenols through my lines and faucets to ensure they are maintained clean and sanitized.

I always drink the mixture to verify that the solution is working effectively.

Food grade spray bottle filled with cheap vodka.

A couple of squirts a couple of times a week. Just let it drip back out. The alcohol and water in the vodka seems to do a good job of keeping the nasties out.

homebrewer_99 said:

I've never cleaned my beer lines or taps. There's always beer going through them...

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+1
Drink More.

When I change out a keg I run sanitizer through the lines. I still have never taken apart a faucet to clean it and I'm not convinced that I need to. It' sbeen ayear now and everything has worked well for me up to this point.

GilaMinumBeer said:

I routinely, at least once a day, pass a solution of Hop Oils, and fermented liquefied Malted Barley with varied concentrations of Ethanol, Esters, and Phenols through my lines and faucets to ensure they are maintained clean and sanitized.

I always drink the mixture to verify that the solution is working effectively.

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That sounds like too much work, getting all those ingredients together and all...

GilaMinumBeer said:

I routinely, at least once a day, pass a solution of Hop Oils, and fermented liquefied Malted Barley with varied concentrations of Ethanol, Esters, and Phenols through my lines and faucets to ensure they are maintained clean and sanitized.

I always drink the mixture to verify that the solution is working effectively.

Click to expand...

+1, well done sir.

Shouldn't Al Gore be on there? I mean, after all, he did invent the internet!

GilaMinumBeer said:

I routinely, at least once a day, pass a solution of Hop Oils, and fermented liquefied Malted Barley with varied concentrations of Ethanol, Esters, and Phenols through my lines and faucets to ensure they are maintained clean and sanitized.

I always drink the mixture to verify that the solution is working effectively.

Click to expand...

What a co-inkidink! That is precisely my method of mold prevention! And very effective, I might add!