Do I need to clean/sanitize my keg

[pdickerson]

Not sure if this is the right category for this post but here goes.

I just had a keg of homebrew blow. She gone 😱. I have a batch ready to put in the keg this evening. Keg is still pressurized. Do I have to oxy clean and sanitize it? Can I just pop the lid, take out the tubes, rinse everything well, reassemble and fill? Seems like a lot of work. Just wondering if anyone else has done this. In the past I've always cleaned and sanitized kegs even I'm refilling them the same day. Just feeling lazy today!

 

[Gameface]

I typically clean and sanitize between each fill but I have rinsed and reused.

A few situations where I wouldn't do that would be if I expected the keg to last a few months or more (not typical for me), or if I was going to bottle out of that keg, or if the keg was going to be unrefrigerated after being filled. Other than that, I don't think you'll have an issue unless there was already an active infection going on somewhere.

 

[pdickerson]

No infections, the previous beer was great. I don't see it lasting more than a few weeks. I'll probably go through all the steps just to be safe, but I am interested in o the peoples input

 

[mgortel]

You might want to just fill it with a mix of star san and swoosh around.....not too much work in that. Hate to see a ruined batch of beer over the lack of a 20 minute quick clean/sanitize

 

[govner1]

I clean & sanitize all my kegs after each use. Why risk contamination for the hour it takes.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I've done this with my fermenter many times and had good results. At fermenter temperatures there is a much greater likelihood of growing an infection. Since this is in the fridge it probably would be fine. Are they the same styles of beer? I wouldn't mix styles into the same keg. That could make it taste funky.

 

[pdickerson]

A 5 % pale was in there and a 6.6 % rye IPA will be replacing,the pale. Same yeast. I'll clean it to be safe. No sense in running the risk after,3 weeks of waiting

 

[ejf063]

Nothing wrong with hitting it with some Oxy, shake the crap out of it, hook the gas to it, and run that solution through the lines. Rinse with water the same way. Then do the same with StarSan only let the StarSan sit for a few minutes before flushing through the lines. I
usually fill the keg half way and let it sit for a few minutes, then flip it upside down and let it sit before I shake it. Doing this, I have never had a problem.

 

[ejf063]

Nothing wrong with hitting it with some Oxy, shake the crap out of it, hook the gas to it, and run that solution through the lines. Rinse with water the same way. Then do the same with StarSan only let the StarSan sit for a few minutes before flushing through the lines. I
usually fill the keg half way and let it sit for a few minutes, then flip it upside down and let it sit before I shake it. Doing this, I have never had a problem.

 

[Yooper]

If you break down the keg, and hold the diptube up to the light you may see alot of crud in there- but you may not care.

One thing I ask when people ask if they should clean their keg is "Do you wash your dishes after you use them? I mean, after all, you're going to use them tomorrow and the next day so why wash/clean them after dinner?". The same is true with a keg. Since it takes less than 10 minutes to clean and sanitize a keg, and there are 40 pints of beer that took a month to make going in it, why WOULDN'T someone clean and sanitize it?

Even laziness isn't really a great excuse- if you spent 6 hours brewing it, why not spend 10 minutes putting it in a cleaned keg?

 

[brewprint]

Put some oxi clean in there, shake it, then rinse. No need to disassemble. That would take you 5 minutes. I let mine soak for at least a day though, then rinse. I've found that the seals go bad once the post is screwed on and off so I don't want to change seals so I leave it together.

 

[Gameface]

Put some oxi clean in there, shake it, then rinse. No need to disassemble. That would take you 5 minutes. I let mine soak for at least a day though, then rinse. I've found that the seals go bad once the post is screwed on and off so I don't want to change seals so I leave it together.

My seals haven't gone bad from taking the posts on and off. If yours do it may be from overtightening.

 

[Yooper]

Put some oxi clean in there, shake it, then rinse. No need to disassemble. That would take you 5 minutes. I let mine soak for at least a day though, then rinse. I've found that the seals go bad once the post is screwed on and off so I don't want to change seals so I leave it together.

I always take mine apart. Some of the grossest things I've seen have been inside the spring of the poppit Or when I hold the long dip tube up to the light and eyeball through it. That's where I spend the additional five minutes. I have never had a post go bad simply by unscrewing it and cleaning it. Still, I would guess that cleaning around most of the inside is better than not doing it at all.

 

[brewprint]

I also turn mine upside down and let it soak. Making the solution get into the poppets.

After shaking, the solution gets into the dip tube as well. It then soaks and removes anything in it.

Oxiclean is a wonderful thing. If something soaks in it long enough, everything is clean. Just rinse an wala.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I let someone borrow a couple kegs that came back to me "clean." I pulled the ball lock posts to make sure they were clean and there was a hop leaf or two stuck up there. The only way I clean kegs now is by pulling all the posts. If I tear an o-ring I have bunch of spares. They are cheap as heck from mcmastercarr. When I switch to sanke kegs I'll be using a CIP type keg cleaner for those. The difference is how those are engineered.

 

[schematix]

Hot rinse, 30 min pbw soak, hot rinse, cold rinse, then air dry. I star San right before I put the next beer in.

 

[Yooper]

I also turn mine upside down and let it soak. Making the solution get into the poppets.

After shaking, the solution gets into the dip tube as well. It then soaks and removes anything in it.

Oxiclean is a wonderful thing. If something soaks in it long enough, everything is clean. Just rinse an wala.

yes, it's great. But you can soak forever and not dissolve hops debris and other solids. It's awesome, but it's not magic. Just for fun, take off the "out" post and look at it and eyeball the diptube if you haven't in a few batches. It should gross you out. At least, it did for me.

 

[talos4]

I clean after every batch. half fill with hot water with PBW. Swish, sit for about 1/2 hr. pressurize, run through the lines and faucets. rinse, remove posts, lid and tubes soak parts in PBW solution. rinse keg and parts run clean water thru lines and faucets, ready to go.

If I'm going to have a keg sit empty for a period of time (I have 5 and room for three) I dump the star san solution but leave the foam in the keg for the duration.

 

[emorris]

always pbw wash soak posts then add gallon or more of starsan for a day or more worked so far so not changing

 

[chawn]

I've always cleaned and sanitized after the contents were depleted. However, I usually remove and clean the posts every other time. They never look dirty.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

I made a simple keg cleaner with a cheap fountain pump from Harbor Freight, some vinyl tubing, two plastic quick connects, some PVC pipe, and a Homer bucket. Pumping OxyClean back through the tubes gets things nicely cleaned out. I've never had a fermenter that would not come clean with OxyClean and time, even without agitation. The pump adds plenty of agitation. It makes it so easy to clean them that I don't even think about not doing it.

 

[pdickerson]

ThreeDogsNE do you have any phot9of this set up? And the pump? Sounds like what I need to build. Would the pump work to recirculate ice water through an immersion chiller too?

 

[kombat]

I clean & sanitize all my kegs after each use. Why risk contamination for the hour it takes.

Because it takes an hour, and the risk is extremely low.

What was in the keg? Beer. Was it infected? No. Then there are no contaminants in the keg. Why would putting fresh (presumably sanitary) beer into the same keg suddenly introduce infection?

You could dump the next batch straight into the keg. If you choose to rinse out the yeast and gunk that remains from the previous batch, well, now you've introduced some possible contaminants (the water). My water is pretty sanitary (municipal water), I use it unboiled all the time for rehydrating yeast, making starters, dissolving gelatin, and never had an infection. Nevertheless, after rinsing the keg, I'll still dump in some StarSan and swirl it around. But you don't need to completely dismantle, wash, rinse, sanitize, and reassemble the entire keg. I leave it all together.

That said, every now and then I'll give the keg the whole once over, just to check the O-rings, clean the lines, all that stuff. But usually, I just open the empty keg, dump in some hot tap water, swirl it around, dump it out, pour in some StarSan, swirl it around, dump it out, then rack the next beer into it.

Life's too short to spend an entire hour needlessly overhauling a keg every time another batch is ready.

 

[kombat]

yes, it's great. But you can soak forever and not dissolve hops debris and other solids.

You don't need to "dissolve" them - you just need them not to be stuck to the fermenter/keg.

The way I "clean" my glass carboys is to simply rinse out most of the yeast/trub with warm (not hot) water, then fill it to the brim with a hot OxyClean free solution. I then just let it sit for 24 hours.

The next night, I dump it out. Yes, there are tons of hop flakes and other detritus floating around in the brown/green water pouring out of the fermenter, but nothing is stuck to the inside anymore. A couple rinses with warm water, and you'd swear it's a brand-new, unused carboy. I mean these things are pristine. It amazes me every time how effective PBW/Oxyclean are.

 

[Yooper]

You don't need to "dissolve" them - you just need them not to be stuck to the fermenter/keg.

The way I "clean" my glass carboys is to simply rinse out most of the yeast/trub with warm (not hot) water, then fill it to the brim with a hot OxyClean free solution. I then just let it sit for 24 hours.

The next night, I dump it out. Yes, there are tons of hop flakes and other detritus floating around in the brown/green water pouring out of the fermenter, but nothing is stuck to the inside anymore. A couple rinses with warm water, and you'd swear it's a brand-new, unused carboy. I mean these things are pristine. It amazes me every time how effective PBW/Oxyclean are.

Sure, but we're talking about kegs and inside the posts. I think people who never take off the posts would be amazed at how much crud is in the poppits and diptube- that doesn't rinse off like in a carboy since it's stuck around the spring in the poppit or near the top at the o-ring, especially if the brewer makes a lot of hoppy beers or beers with fruit or something that might have some debris.

 

[-CHRIS-]

I ran into a good deal for 8 ball lock kegs that had sat for a while with juices in them. I pressure washed and scrubbed them the best I could. Any problem storing them with a dilute mixture of PBW and water until I am ready to you them? When I am ready to fill I give them a final rinse and clean.

Chris

 

[Gameface]

I ran into a good deal for 8 ball lock kegs that had sat for a while with juices in them. I pressure washed and scrubbed them the best I could. Any problem storing them with a dilute mixture of PBW and water until I am ready to you them? When I am ready to fill I give them a final rinse and clean.

Chris

It'll probably be okay but not necessary. I know for me if I leave oxyclean in something for an extended period I get a powdery substance on the walls that is hard to rinse away. Probably something to do with my local water supply (Rocky Mountain fresh and loaded with minerals).

 

[Firewalker11]

Its a DAMN minute people! Take the post off and sanitize the keg already!

--Sorry-- the sanitation Nazi came out in me, I don't know what happened.

 

[brewprint]

I thought that I'd mention that after this post I thought that I would thoroughly clean some of my kegs that have been soaking in oxiclean for a few days. I disassembled the dip tube and there was not a speck of anything in there. Nothing visible on the posts or anywhere.

I try to soak them longer than just a day or two. Turning them up and down here and there and shaking them up. Letting them sit around 12 hours sitting up or down and filling it a little more than half way.

So far I don't see a reason to completely disassemble unless there may be dry hop chunks.

 

[Gameface]

I thought that I'd mention that after this post I thought that I would thoroughly clean some of my kegs that have been soaking in oxiclean for a few days. I disassembled the dip tube and there was not a speck of anything in there. Nothing visible on the posts or anywhere.

I try to soak them longer than just a day or two. Turning them up and down here and there and shaking them up. Letting them sit around 12 hours sitting up or down and filling it a little more than half way.

So far I don't see a reason to completely disassemble unless it's been a 'good while.'

I don't really do a "deep" clean on my kegs every use. I do rinse, oxysoak and sanitize pretty much every time.

But there are times I either haven't brewed fr a while or have been brewing a lot and I use a keg that has been out of the rotation for some time. I always deep clean those kegs. If I'm cleaning a just emptied keg to make room for a fresh batch I'll usually do a condensed version of my typical cleaning ritual.

 

[Firewalker11]

I thought that I'd mention that after this post I thought that I would thoroughly clean some of my kegs that have been soaking in oxiclean for a few days. I disassembled the dip tube and there was not a speck of anything in there. Nothing visible on the posts or anywhere.

I try to soak them longer than just a day or two. Turning them up and down here and there and shaking them up. Letting them sit around 12 hours sitting up or down and filling it a little more than half way.

So far I don't see a reason to completely disassemble unless there may be dry hop chunks.

Seriously, how would you know if you didn't take the apart?

 

[Yooper]

Seriously, how would you know if you didn't take the apart?

I'll never solve this argument (and don't want to!).

so for fun, I'll invite ya'll for dinner. I wash my dishes every third or fourth meal. How does that sit? If it's ok, then I agree you don't need to clean your keg very often. If not so much, maybe consider breaking down your kegs and inspecting.

Dinner is July 19th at 2 pm. Seriously, you are all invited. We can use paper plates if you'd like! Cake and ice cream follow dinner, along with a pontoon boat ride.

 

[Firewalker11]

As clean as cold water can get em...

 

[brewprint]

I'm just saying I believe that a straight oxiclean soak for any length of time can pretty much clean anything. I learned this when I used to bottle beer and wanted to remove labels.

Some of the labels were really stubborn. Labels like bells would come off in a matter of hours. Some others it would take 24 hours. Some others would take a week but they all came off eventually.