Beer line cleaning--how often, and why is it needed?

[mongoose33]

I'd been out of the country for a bit, came back and my beer in the keezer was....not quite there.

It had been a while since I cleaned the lines so I did that tonite, and Funky Rye returned to its previous glory.

Which got me to thinking: why do beer lines need cleaning? Is it the accumulation of beerstone? Even if the beer is not moving at all?

I did a search and looked back through the forum and couldn't find anything on this. What I don't understand, hopefully someone can shed some light on this, is why a beer in a line under pressure and inside the keezer where it's cold, is any different than the beer in the keg.

Clearly it makes a difference; I'm just trying to understand why. If you can point me to a reference on it, I'd appreciate that.

And what have you found to be a good cleaning interval? Does it depend on the type of beer? Or temperature or pressure?

 

[porterpounder]

If yo look at your lines after a while you'll see a film (thin or thick) of protein and yeast that doesn't move when you pour a beer. That creates turbulence that can cause foamy pours and funkify over time.

 

[myndflyte]

Having just starting my kegging journey, I have some thoughts on frequency of cleaning. I think anytime you are putting a new beer on the line, you probably want to clean them.

If one of your lines always has the same beer on it, then it probably doesn't need cleaning that often but if one line has a stout and now you're putting on an IPA, I think you want to clean it.

 

[porterpounder]

Having just starting my kegging journey, I have some thoughts on frequency of cleaning. I think anytime you are putting a new beer on the line, you probably want to clean them.

If one of your lines always has the same beer on it, then it probably doesn't need cleaning that often but if one line has a stout and now you're putting on an IPA, I think you want to clean it.

I usually clean them after every couple of kegs or if the line look gunked up. I'd like to clean them after every keg, but laziness sets in.

 

[jcav]

I actually do mine every time I hook up a new batch of kegged beer to the line. I just make time to do it and knock it out. I figure I spent a lot of time brewing and fermenting and then carbing/conditioning the batch, so I want it to taste the best it can. It is easier then also to keep the beer stone from accumulating if you stay on top of it, and easier to get it out of the line in my opinion. At least that is what I tell myself so I get off my lazy butt and do it!

John

 

[TheMadKing]

I almost never really clean mine, but I store them full of star-san after I blow a keg, and then blow the star-san out with beer once I refill the keg. I do have one line that suddenly started pouring foamy though, so maybe I'll give it a good oxiclean soak and see if that fixes it. Also, I have never seen beerstone, ever.

 

[pshankstar]

Here's what I do. Once a keg kicks I clean it that same day. I use an oxo-clean solution with hot water. After the keg is cleaned I'll place some of the cleaning solution in the keg, pressurize it and then run it through the lines for a little bit (5-10 mins while doing other cleaning stuff) and let it sit in the lines. Then I run a little more through the lines. I rinse the keg with hot water and then place some hot water in the keg. I repeat what I just did with the oxo-clean solution. Then I do it all over again with the sanitizer solution, but leave the lines with the sanitizer solution until I hook up the next full keg.

I haven't seen a beer stone and I feel the lines stay clean this way. I haven't had any issues to date. Anyways, I thought I would share my process and that I clean them every time a keg kicks. Cheers!

 

[TheMadKing]

Here's what I do. Once a keg kicks I clean it that same day. I use an oxo-clean solution with hot water. After the keg is cleaned I'll place some of the cleaning solution in the keg, pressurize it and then run it through the lines for a little bit (5-10 mins while doing other cleaning stuff) and let it sit in the lines. Then I run a little more through the lines. I rinse the keg with hot water and then place some hot water in the keg. I repeat what I just did with the oxo-clean solution. Then I do it all over again with the sanitizer solution, but leave the lines with the sanitizer solution until I hook up the next full keg.

I haven't seen a beer stone and I feel the lines stay clean this way. I haven't had any issues to date. Anyways, I thought I would share my process and that I clean them every time a keg kicks. Cheers!

How fast do you go through CO2 running things through your lines for 5-10 minutes?

 

[Rockn_M]

I only clean my lines about once a year or if I go from a dark high flavor beer to a light beer. I use a large pump in a bucket and then have a tube going from the tap back to the bucket and let it circulate for about 10-15 min.

 

[eric19312]

i do the pump and bucket thing too. Wish I had a stronger pump as the one I use is from my Marks keg cleaner and just doesn't push hard enough. Line cleaner is really inexpensive no need to substitute with homemade products,

 

[mongoose33]

i do the pump and bucket thing too. Wish I had a stronger pump as the one I use is from my Marks keg cleaner and just doesn't push hard enough. Line cleaner is really inexpensive no need to substitute with homemade products,

If you have the bucket on the floor, try raising it with another bucket or crate or some such. I do a pump and it doesn't work well with the bucket on the floor, but raise it up and it does fine. When the bucket is raised up it doesn't have to fight as much "head" which is the energy required to pump the liquid up to the level of the taps and lines.

 

[pshankstar]

How fast do you go through CO2 running things through your lines for 5-10 minutes?

Well I'm not really sure. When I pressurize the keg I just hit it with CO2 for a little bit or a small blast. The reason being is I don't want to waste a lot of CO2 with all the head space in the keg. I guess I don't really run the solution for 5-10 minutes but more let it sit in the lines for that long to help break up any of the gunk that may be in there. Now I do run the hot water through more the flush it really well but then again I give the keg a blast of CO2 just enough to move the liquid through it.

Now I do bottle from the keg often so that eats up a lot of CO2. If I have a beer ready to keg, I'll bottle up what's left in the current keg so I can put the fresh keg in. It's a mini fridge so I can't fit more than one keg in at a time. Also, I have a cousin who works in the beverage industry so I get a full 20lbs CO2 tank when needed when I return the empty one. So given all that I still try to be conservative but don't count or try to figure out how much use I get out of a tank.

Mainly just a blast of CO2 here and there to get the liquids moving is enough. I hope this info helps.

 

[jmark]

I'll clean my lines a couple of times a year whether I have beer in my kegerator or not. Usually end up defrosting the thing at the same time as the refrigerator plate at the back does tend to get a build up of ice over time. I use one of Bobby's keg jumpers (see below for URL) and a pump to run a BLC solution through all three tap lines at once. Do that for 10-15 minutes followed by a rinse cycle for the same and then hook everything back up... lose a couple of oz. for any beers on tap and I'm good to go:

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/ball_lock_jumperpost.htm

My setup has the pump hooked to the ball lock connector on line 1... up through faucet 1 looped to faucet 2 down line 2 through the jumper post and up line 3 and out faucet 3 back into the bucket holding the pump.

 

[brewcat]

I clean mine after every keg since I'm cleaning the keg anyway.

 

[gwiz1]

i do the pump and bucket thing too. Wish I had a stronger pump as the one I use is from my Marks keg cleaner and just doesn't push hard enough. Line cleaner is really inexpensive no need to substitute with homemade products,

I do the same (with the Marks pump). Seems to work great. Kevin.[/I]

 

[DU99]

pull you taps apart too

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I run blc through mine after a keg kicks, it doesn't take long and my german pils never ends up tasting barrel aged. I also replace the lines semi regularly so there's not that much chance for nastiness to accumulate.

 

[pshankstar]

I run blc through mine after a keg kicks, it doesn't take long and my german pils never ends up tasting barrel aged. I also replace the lines semi regularly so there's not that much chance for nastiness to accumulate.

How often is it that you replace the lines? I was thinking maybe once a year or maybe every 18 months depending on how many legs I go through. Although my lines still look pretty clean with pushing cleaner through them after a keg kicks.

 

[GrayingNeophyte]

I also use the Mark II keg cleaner pump with a few adapters to clean the lines. Seems to work just fine raising the bucket a bit.
I disassemble the faucets and line disconnects and throw them into the buckets then run the pump for half hour or until the hot solution cools, then run clean water followed by sanitizer.

 

[gnef]

I haven't cleaned my lines since I upgraded them to Bev Seal Ultra 235 about two years ago now.

Part of that is the material of the tubing itself with the PET inner liner that makes me not that concerned about it.

I do have a setup for cleaning though, and I plan on doing it soon.

My setup is to use a small pot (about 2 gallons or so?) with valve, sitting on a camping stove with cleaner in it (I have penetrate, which is just a double concentration of BLC). From the valve on the pot, it goes to my brew pump (a chugger mini max, if it matters), which then pumps into one of the faucets using silicone tubing.

Inside the walk-in, I have 7 lines connected to a manifold with John Guest fittings (these work really well with the 235 tubing). There is one line bring in the cleaner from the pump. The 6 returns flow back through the faucets, and I have growler fillers to use to redirect back into the pot.

I set the heat on the pot so that when recirculating, it stays around 130F. I will recirculate for 15-20 minutes.

It is quite a bear to setup, which is why I don't use it very often. Plus, since I have 14 taps, I have to do it twice, so I need to make sure I have the time to go through all of that work. The last time I did this, I also did multiple cycles for each set, which also added to the time.

After the cleaning cycle(s), I'll do a star san purge, and then put the beers back on tap.

You can probably see why I don't do this very often!