Why clean keg lines?

This seems like a silly question, I know. But here's why I ask:

A friend of mine has a nanobrewery/bar and he let me do a batch of IIPA a while ago. Some of the beer was sold to another bar in town and I had it on tap there and it tasted great. Then my friend put some on his bar and I had some there... not as great. I asked the bartender if they clean the lines between beers and he said 'no'. I told my friend he should clean them and he said, "Why? When we tap a new keg we just run a little beer out into a dump bucket, which purges the line of the previous beer."

I have a strong feeling that this is wrong, and the line needs to be cleaned, but I don't know enough about it to come up with an explanation as to why. Can someone help?

Thanks!

That's disgusting but unfortunately common. I might even consider editing this thread before the masses see it so help your buddy save face. Think of what is happening when your not pouring a pint. The beer is just sitting in the line soaking in. My siphoning tube starting yellowing after 5-6 batches. And I clean it! Ask yourself, what is that yellow? And my beer is passing through that tube for only 1-2 minutes. Not sitting in it for a week.

I picked up watermelon in an IPA from a fruit beer they changed over 2 days earlier at a local bar

Agreed, disgusting and common. I have e-mailed restaurants (when getting to the bar manager didn't work) and let them know that while dining at their restaurant is fine, I won't be buying their beer when a simple pour of an amber ale tastes bad. I returned a couple of weeks later and ordered a beer, it was very fresh. Your friend is absolutely incorrect and what takes all of a few minutes could really improve his beer. I would not want my beer on tap anywhere that didn't understand that concept. Makes me wonder what else is filthy.

Thanks for the replies. What is the best way to put that to my friend? He's the kind of guy who wants hard evidence/explanation.

Also, should the lines absolutely be cleaned after each beer?

Thanks!

seanppp said:

Thanks for the replies. What is the best way to put that to my friend? He's the kind of guy who wants hard evidence/explanation.

Also, should the lines absolutely be cleaned after each beer?

Thanks!

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Bars tend to have a schedule for line cleaning- like every 10 days. They generally contract it out, but could do it themselves if they have the know how and equipment.

I can tell which bars don't do this- it makes a HUGE difference in the beer. A local bar has had Bell's Two Hearted on tap in the past, and it tasted like crap even though it was a fresh keg.

Edit- here's a quick run down of how and why the faucets and lines need to be cleaned: http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer-edu/line-cleaning-cid-1086.html

seanppp said:

Thanks for the replies. What is the best way to put that to my friend? He's the kind of guy who wants hard evidence/explanation.

Also, should the lines absolutely be cleaned after each beer?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

In my experience when a person who owns a business is too stubborn to actually listen to their customer-base, that person doesn't care about "evidence" so much as he/she cares about being right. Let him fail. He will if he continues down the path and ends up serving bad beer. It is sadly sometimes the only watt to really "prove" to someone that a meaningful yet fairly simple task makes all the difference in your end product.

I would tell him, since he's your "friend," but be prepared to shrug your shoulders if he starts to interrogate for proof. And don't drink his beer until you have "proof" he acted upon your advice.

I really hope you get your friend to change his mind about this. I was talking to a bartender at our local Yard House and he told me they clean the beer lines after every keg change.

Some states there are regulations that the lines HAVE to be cleaned after XX kegs. There is a federal FDA guideline of every 14 days.

Also, in many states, the beer distributors HAVE to clean lines as part of their basic service, but in some states, the responsibility falls on the retailer.

about a month ago I actually noticed the beer in my lines starting to taste funky. I had not cleaned them in months and had not replaced the actual lines in years.

I normally use BLC to clean my lines, but now even that did not do the job. I ordered new hose and replaced everything. The funky taste is gone and everything tastes fresh.

Sorry to kind of hi-jack this thread but I've just about got my kegging set up complete. I'll start by saying I really enjoy brewing but don't drink that much (a 5 gallon batch usually lasts me a few months).

I'll just be using a picnic tap for now but should I disconnect the hose and just run water through it when I've had my beer or two for the night? I ask that way because it could be a few days or even a week before I have another. If I need to clean every two weeks I'd be cleaning the line after having drank from it maybe 4 or 5 times?

Just curious on what people think for cleaning. The other thing is I have an empty keg, should I just use that to clean the line with chemicals when I clean? Curious on people's outlook.

It is not a silly question, but a very important one. Some background/ evidence. When I was the brew master a small brew pub, I got aggressive in beer line cleaning, beer sales went WAY up. Customers would tell me the beer tasted better all the time.

Now cleaning beer lines in a commercial setup is not a simple as it sounds. I saw a comment about it taking a few minutes, it is way more than that unless you have the right (expensive) tools for re-circulation, if you do not have the equipment, the procedure is to "fill and soak". I cleaned half the lines every week, it took about 3.5 hours (after close) to clean 4 lines.

The biggest reason to clean lines is that it takes less effort to clean the lines in the future. You will pickup off tastes over time as bugs start to grow in the lines (just like why you sanitize fermentors). If you can taste it, it will take a lot of effort to get it clean. It is amazing how much gunk will come of of the lines. When I showed the manager how to clean lines, he assumed I was cleaning the stout lines, when it was actually a pale ale...

I would not worry too much about cleaning between kegs (unless the last keg was something odd). If you waste a bit (what they described), and the lines are clean, you won't pickup enough of the last beer to notice.

Marc77 said:

Sorry to kind of hi-jack this thread but I've just about got my kegging set up complete. I'll start by saying I really enjoy brewing but don't drink that much (a 5 gallon batch usually lasts me a few months).

I'll just be using a picnic tap for now but should I disconnect the hose and just run water through it when I've had my beer or two for the night? I ask that way because it could be a few days or even a week before I have another. If I need to clean every two weeks I'd be cleaning the line after having drank from it maybe 4 or 5 times?

Just curious on what people think for cleaning. The other thing is I have an empty keg, should I just use that to clean the line with chemicals when I clean? Curious on people's outlook.

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If you are keeping the line in the fridge, you are ok. At home I am in the same situation, I clean between kegs, really well, and replace lines about every year an a half. I just use vinyl lines, and buy in spools.

Beerstone is why you clean the lines.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Beerstone is why you clean the lines.

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Well, yes. But also pediococcus and other bacteria and that to me takes precedence over beerstone.

Did you ever tasted diacetyl in a tap beer? That's not because it's in the beer- it's because the beer lines are contaminated with pediococcus. That's why the FDA is involved with beer lines- bacteria and food-borne (beer borne?) bacteria is a biggie on their radar!