Are my beer lines still OK to use?

[Brew2Be]

Hi everyone!

I have a kegerator and I have not cleaned the beer lines for around 1.5 months. The lines have had either CO2, beer or a mixture of the two inside the entire time (no air) and have been refrigerated at 3.5C (no room temperature). I was wondering whether I can still use the lines if I use the following cleaning regiment:

30 minute hot water PBW soak
Clean, hot water to rinse out lines
5 minute iodophor soak
Run new beer through, throw out first few pints


The reason I want to do this is that I can only order beer lines online and they take 3-5 business days to arrive, and I wanted to keg for this upcoming weekend. If this is not possible I will have to wait for the order, I just wanted to ask before ruining my beer with a possible infection / off flavor because of the beer lines.


Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Yooper]

Probably. Take a good look at the lines and see if they are full of beerstone or other crud. If they are relatively clear, then cleaning/rinsing/sanitizing will work just fine.

 

[Brew2Be]

Probably. Take a good look at the lines and see if they are full of beerstone or other crud. If they are relatively clear, then cleaning/rinsing/sanitizing will work just fine.

Thanks, Yooper!

 

[Carolina_Matt]

If it's only been 1.5 months, I can't imagine it would be an issue. Plenty of people have kegs that last longer than that, and they don't clean the lines until the keg is empty.

 

[augiedoggy]

lol I havent cleaned my home tap lines in over a year... shame on me but if I ever do get around to using them again I intend on just recirculating cleaner through them and calling it a day. Not sure why they would need replacement?

 

[processhead]

Just a general observation on the OPs question that applies to other aspects of home brewing sanitation and brewing best practices.

Brewers struggle with questions like this one, and the answers range from "Do THIS every time you brew" to " I hardly ever do THIS".

In the real world the spectrum on various cleaning/brewing practices ranges from massive overkill to woefully inadequate.

In most cases overkill only affects the time and resources you spend on brewing, and it doesn't effect the quality of the finished beer.

Woefully inadequate can often have a very real impact on beer quality, and the effects are obvious on the finished product.

Somewhere in between these two extremes is "Just about right". "Just about right" brewers are making great beer every batch and they aren't throwing unnecessary time, money, and anxiety at their hobby.

Brewers that have entered the "Just about right" zone, can spend more time enjoying their beer, their hobby, and their lives, and less time obsessing over the brewing minutia that offers little return on their investment.

I don't have a problem with those that choose to experiment while brewing. That's how we learn.
But beginning and even intermediate brewers can sometimes be led down a slippery slope thinking they have to take extreme measures to brew great beer.