Newbie Keg Cleaning Question

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pjhurl

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Wasn't sure whether to put this here or over in equipment&sanitation, but I figured since I'm a newbie asking a (probably VERY) newbie question, I'd do it here.

First let me say: this isn't a general "how do I clean a keg" question. I've read a lot and I've done it a bunch of times now. Fortunately that keg was shiny clean to begin with, so the task was pretty easy.

Question is this: my wife got me a kegging kit from our LHBS/Brewery for father's day (I have been using my buddy's up to this point), with a used keg -- that was a production keg for the brewery before they switched to sankey kegs a year or two ago.

I've got a significant amount of scaling/mineral deposits/something in the keg that I haven't been able to get out yet. Here's what I've tried:

1. An overnight (plus some) soak in very hot tap water plus Oxyclean Free.
2. Followed that by an overnight soak in very hot tap water plus 2 ounces of PBW (I pulled that number from the sticky in equipment & sanitation thread -- perhaps not concentrated enough in 5 gallons for this job)
3. Manually scrubbing the inside with a nylon dish brush.
4. Figured I'd switch from caustic to acid and tried a several hour long soak in a solution of hot water and several cups of distilled vinegar.

Nothing has worked so far. Figure my choices are:

1. A longer soak in a higher concentration of PBW
2. Use a rougher brush or even something like steel wool or a green scrubbie (Scotch-Brite)
3. Live with it, because it's fine and I'm overthinking.

I have no idea which one of these three is the best answer. Any pointers? Pictures included to show what I'm dealing with, as I have no idea if it's mineral deposits, old petrified beer, or what...

Image.jpg


Image 3.jpg
 
Exchange it for a different one that is not destroyed with beer scale, or whatever that is. The LHBS should have never sold you a used keg looking like that on the inside.
 
It looks like it could be beer stone. I've never had it in my corney kegs but that's the only thing I can think of that is so hard to remove. I have some in my boil kettle that I haven't dealt with. I'm not sure if Acid No. 5 will remove it or not, but supposedly muriatic acid or phosphoric acid should.

PBW and the like are alkalai cleaners- I think you need an acid cleaner for this job!
 
Yooper said:
It looks like it could be beer stone. I've never had it in my corney kegs but that's the only thing I can think of that is so hard to remove. I have some in my boil kettle that I haven't dealt with. I'm not sure if Acid No. 5 will remove it or not, but supposedly muriatic acid or phosphoric acid should.

PBW and the like are alkalai cleaners- I think you need an acid cleaner for this job!
Click to expand...

It's definitely beer stone. I read just a little on it here and it seems a caustic solution would/could remove it, but the article linked is referencing beer lines and not specifically kegs. I was also thinking CLR, as it's essentially limestone scale, but I'm not sure how good that would be for the corny itself.
 
I had a keg that looked real similar to that. Like you I was having difficulties. I finally used a lot of PBW and very hot water. I let it soak for an hour or so and then scrubbed while it was still hot, the scale flaked right off. I think the key was doing it while hot and a higher concentration of cleaner.
 
I have used a higher concentration of Starsan to remove beerstone in my boil kettles. I usually let this soak for 15-30 minutes. I find that much of the stone wipes away then with a towel.
 
Thanks for all the help everyone. I had starsan sitting in the other keg, so I just transferred over to the nasty one, added effectively another dose (so it's almost double strength) and will give it a nice acid soak (that's what I was trying to do with the vinegar soak I gave it, but suspect it was too dilute). Will see what happens... if this doesn't work, I'll take Greg & ATX's advice and get rid of it.
 
How long has it been soaking? You might want to check on the progress because I have read on HBT that long exposure times to high concentration of starsan can pit out the inside steel surface of kegs. You can always refill this if you see progress.
 
msa8967 said:
How long has it been soaking? You might want to check on the progress because I have read on HBT that long exposure times to high concentration of starsan can pit out the inside steel surface of kegs. You can always refill this if you see progress.
Click to expand...

A couple of hours. Going to xfer it out now and see how it looks
 
I keg using Sankeys and they are quite challenging to clean at first. I have found that CLR is the only thing that works for me. My typical schedule would be OXY clean for 24 hours and then CLR for a day or two. It hasn't let me down yet.

Hope this helps
 
btgold29 said:
I keg using Sankeys and they are quite challenging to clean at first. I have found that CLR is the only thing that works for me. My typical schedule would be OXY clean for 24 hours and then CLR for a day or two. It hasn't let me down yet.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Actually I've moved on to some CLR which seems to be loosening up the scale/stone. I suspect I'll still require some scrubbing, even with the CLR treatment.
 
got one the other day like that. go to hardware store and get some TSP and mix it at grout cleaning strength -whatever the package says - in boiling water , filled to the top in the keg. let sit overnight. rinse. done. dont use muriatic acid unless you want to turn the stainless black. if you want to go with acid , good one for stainless cleaning is citric acid.
 
If you need citric acid, you can use Lemishine, which you can get at your local Wal-mart.
 
Redcat said:
If you need citric acid, you can use Lemishine, which you can get at your local Wal-mart.
Click to expand...

I was actually wondering if Lemishine might do the trick. Thanks.

So I have got a LOT but not ALL of the stone out, after the long soak with StarSan and then the CLR attack and then some work with a scotchbrite.

Still needs more work in places I couldn't reach last night, or couldn't see in the dark.

Haven't gotten around the the TSP (god, when I read that I had a flashback of my first ship in the navy and the boiler lab), but might try to see if HD has some.
 
philrose said:
That is the nastiest corny I've seen, restoring it would be an accomplishment. Don't give up man!
Click to expand...

I could have just driven down to the shop and replaced it, but it's gotten personal at this point in time. Well that and I have a work project that I may be procrastinating on :D

I think I'll get it, but the downside is that my scotchbrite was a bit too abrasive, so there are some scratches from it happening in there. Should have used a white one, not a green one that I bought for cleaning my grill.
 
Well, I've got to rig up a long handled brush or something to get the scotchbrite down to the bottom, beyond the point where my forearm gets stuck in the opening all winnie the pooh style, but I got most of the stone off of there with a variety of acids (StarSan, CLR, Lemishine soaks) and elbow grease. I'm going to pretend that I didn't scratch the inside of the keg with the first scotchbrite I used :)

So a bit more cleaning to do, but otherwise I'm waiting for my proper-sized ratcheting box-end 12pt wrench to arrive from Sears today and I'm going to put the new o-rings on and pressurize it.

Next step: marine epoxy or something to secure the loose side of the rubber handle.

photo (3).jpg
 

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