How often do you clean taps?

[LovesIPA]

How often do you completely disassemble your taps, including every washer and ring, soak them all in PBW and then star-san?

Every keg? Every other?

If you don't disassemble every time, do you clean in place every time?

 

[runkelia]

Well I only currently keg commercial beer, but I do it every (2) half kegs. For homebrew, I would do it every time I changed the style? I don't know, what does everyone else think?
I do not use PBW or Star San, I use BLC (beer line cleaner) run it through everything and soak the tap in it. There are good you tube videos out there to show you how.

 

[mikescooling]

I run water through them all the time, but complete break down and soak in PBW, every six months or after a thick stout.

 

[dobe12]

I will push some oxyclean followed by hot water and then some sanitizer through my lines/taps every other keg. I break down the entire system, soak, clean, santize, replace lines, then reassemble once a year. Some will do this much more often. If I thought I had to break down my kegerator with every keg... I would stop kegging and go back to bottling.

One key is to make sure you're using the taps. I have a beer or two every day and a few more than that on the weekends. If I don't have a beer for a day or two, I make sure to push a little beer through to keep things moving and fresh beer in the lines.

 

[govner1]

I clean every time a keg kicks. I clean the keg first w/ BBrite & run it through the line and tap. Then I rinse the keg well with hot water & flush the line and tap w/ the last rinse water. So far it's worked well for 3 years.

 

[prandlesc]

I clean in place after every keg, and hope that I have a couple of kegs ready to go about the same time. I have a small fountain pump (200 gph from HFT) that I attached a corny keg liquid side ball lock post to the outlet tube suing some fittings from the hardware store. I attach my ball lock disconnect to that, drop the pump into a plastic pitcher full of beer line cleaner placed under my tap, and let it run continuously for about 30 minutes while I'm changing out the keg. I then flush with water using the same process. I haven't disassembled by taps in I don't know how long - I'd probably better think about doing that and getting a good cleaning!!

 

[hunter_le five]

After every keg kicks I run through a bit of PBW, followed by Star San. Then I just attach the next keg and dump the first pint due to the star san still in the line. Very easy and quick way to clean the lines. If necessary, I'll scrub the inside of the taps a bit with a brush after the PBW step.

 

[Grannyknot]

Since I normally clean & sanitize my kegs after each one has kicked, I hook it to my system every time and push sanitizer through at the very least.

 

[Ryfi]

Man I feel like a dirt bag. I know I have cleaned 1 of the 3 lines once in two years but I couldn't tell you when that was or when the others have, if ever. I have not had any off flavors that I detect. That may change after I do a thorough cleaning.
On a side note I work in a pub and our lines are cleaned every two weeks.