End of the night tap clean...

This is probably a dumb question but how do you guys clean your tap after your done for the night?

I'm not referring to dismantling and giving it a thorough clean, just a quick sanitation after a few pints and your ready to turn in for the night. I have been shoving a strip of paper towel up the faucet, giving it a twist, removing the towel and letting it air dry but I feel like I should be giving it a shot of star san or at least some clean water.

What's your method?

RDWHAHB followed by RDWHAHB works for me. If I'm still not comfortable I RDWHAHB.

The only time I ever clean my faucets is when I kick a keg. I never clean mine in between drinking sessions.

Really...nothing?

My tap gets rank if I don't clean it. When I first got my keezer running about 6 weeks ago I put a rubber cap on after every pour. Oh man, that got nasty. Sulfur egg farts when you cracked the tap for the first time. After running 12 - 16 oz it was better but that first pour of the day...baaad. I removed the tap and gave it a good clean and the rest of the keg was perfect.

Since then I have discarded the caps and used a paper towel up the nose when I'm done and it's been good. Once or twice I have been lazy and left it for the next day and by 5pm when it's beer time...funk. Not as bad as the cap but if I just pour off an .oz or so and give it a sniff...funk. If I pour a full pint it's hard to tell, then it's fine for the rest of the night. Just wondering what they do at bars and restaurants at the end of the night.

I used to work in a bar with 69 beers on tap, and as far as I remember the only cleanup at the end of the night involved wiping down the outside of the faucets and cleaning out the drip trays. Lines got cleaned on some monthly basis but I don't remember the frequency.

I clean mine between kegs, I would get so tired of cleaning them every night

SnakeRidge said:

I used to work in a bar with 69 beers on tap, and as far as I remember the only cleanup at the end of the night involved wiping down the outside of the faucets and cleaning out the drip trays. Lines got cleaned on some monthly basis but I don't remember the frequency.

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Agree on these points.

The line length plays a role in this, and chilled lines make it a bit simpler.

The bar that I used to work and manage had the tap lines from the cooler run through the wall into a refrigerated cooler/tower.

Usually we just opened the tap and let it run for a second before the pour, and that was only for the not so common beers that did not move quickly.
The Bud, Coors, and Long Trail taps seemed like they ran all the time, so there was never an opportunity for the beer to stale in those lines.

I did become aware of off tastes/smells that certain beers could (and did) get if they sat too long in the lines.

max384 said:

The only time I ever clean my faucets is when I kick a keg. I never clean mine in between drinking sessions.

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This.

Clean the line and faucet every time you change a keg. Nothing in between. Never had an issue.

I work it into my keg cleaning process. Keg kicks, clean the keg, fill with PBW, run through the line/faucet, fill with star san, run through the line/faucet, blow out star san with CO2 from now empty/clean keg. Swap empty keg with fresh keg.

I clean my lines every 2-3 weeks. I built a line cleaner with a tiny pond pump. The pond pump recirculates BLC through the line and faucet. I only use a cap full of BLC and about 2 quarts of water in a bowl and recirculate. Takes about 15 minutes per line.

Between pours I let the faucet drip dry and I've never had an issue.

I just keep a spray bottle of starsan next to the kegerator and give a quick spray or two right up the faucet after every pour. May be overkill but it is so quick an easy I just can't help myself...

Great feedback, thanks guys

What style tap are you using? Perlicks typically don't allow much residual beer to hang around.

The more traditional taps leave some beer left behind that could get funky when left for some period of time.

As far as what bars do, some of that must vary by local regulation. I've seen some bars that wrap the taps in Saran Wrap at the end of the night.

Not sure whether it's to know if someone tampered with the tap overnight or to keep fruit flies and the like out.

I used to work for a big bar back when i was living in the netherlands, but we flushed the lines every evening after service.
As far as I know, just for the taste, it would be good to flush the lines regularily.

I have 4 new Perlick 650's. It does not seem to matter much what's on tap. I have had, 2 milk stouts, an Irish red, a hefe, and a cider and they all are susceptible to a little funk even after one night. It's not very noticeable if you pour an entire glass but the first .5 - 1 oz is gamey. We had a B-Day party for my 2 year old on Sunday and I had 4 beers on tap. I was too lazy to spray them out that night so when I went to check them Monday night, same as always, first 1/2 oz or so was rank. I'm a little OCD so I'll just give the nozzle a squirt at the end of the night and chalk it up as a personal a issue. Thanks for all the feedback.

Incorporate it into a drinking game - when you're having a party, at the beginning of the night, put the first "funky" ounce from each tap into a single glass and set aside. The loser of the game has to drink the glass.

Starsan in a spray bottle, squirt up into the spout and let it drip out.

Using Perlick 525's myself, i maybe clean the faucets every couple of years. I got some extra faucets when i heard the 525 line was being phased out. The beer line is glycol chilled and insulated, it's cleaned only (with BLC) when i forget to replaced a kicked keg and the old beer dries up. But nothing after pouring a pint, and i've never had stickiness or other funk issues.

mikejmiller71 said:

I have 4 new Perlick 650's. It does not seem to matter much what's on tap. I have had, 2 milk stouts, an Irish red, a hefe, and a cider and they all are susceptible to a little funk even after one night. It's not very noticeable if you pour an entire glass but the first .5 - 1 oz is gamey. We had a B-Day party for my 2 year old on Sunday and I had 4 beers on tap. I was too lazy to spray them out that night so when I went to check them Monday night, same as always, first 1/2 oz or so was rank. I'm a little OCD so I'll just give the nozzle a squirt at the end of the night and chalk it up as a personal a issue. Thanks for all the feedback.

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If you're noticing this funk after only one night, no offense, but I wonder if it may be in your head. Maybe the beer in the lines is slightly warmer, and that's tricking your taste buds. The vast majority of home keggers aren't religiously cleaning their taps every night, and there aren't problems from not doing this. But, in the end, it doesn't matter what everyone else does, it matters what you do, and what makes you happy. If cleaning the taps after each use makes you happy, who are we to say otherwise!

This issue would only happen if you had a 'flow control' type faucet and used it incorrectly as I did. I was shutting off the tap with the flow control knob and then closing the tap. Locking the chamber with air and remnants of beer. In ambient temp it quickly (1-3 days) results in small amounts of beer going rancid in the chamber. Once I stopped closing the flow control knob at the end of the night and allowed cold beer to run up to the tap handle I have had no issues. Beer has been fresh at every pull for the last week with no cleaning at nights end.


For those who think this is my imagination, I don't take offence but I assure you I had several people give it the sniff test and recoil in disgust. It was a strong sulfur smell (read egg fart) :cross:. Thanks for all the feedback on your personal tap care. The comments saying they did nothing forced me to go over what I was doing wrong and inevitably figure out what was causing it.