Beer Line Cleaning

[BasementArtie]

Hey Everyone,

I just want some advice.

I have a kegerator with 4 taps on the door so all the lines are refrigerated.

I was originally cleaning the lines every 4 weeks with purple line cleaner then rinsing it out.

Then I reduced this to every 6 weeks. By mistake this time round it's been 8 weeks (as of today when I cleaned) however I haven't noticed any off flavours from any of the 4 beers I have on.

I've done some research on other threads etc and some say every 2 weeks and others say once the keg kicks. However I am wondering if this differs because of certain set ups i.e. taps with towers and taps door mounted.

All my beer lines are refrigerated within the fridge the same as the kegs. I am wondering how it is that the internal dip tube of the keg not being cleaned periodically until the keg has kicks is fine but the line from keg to tap must be cleaned regularly? Surely with both storing beer within a refrigerated environment means the contents are the same?

Also what do other people do?

 

[Yesfan]

I just use BLC (Beer Line Cleaner) to clean my lines. I'll do a hot water rinse, then recirculate BLC in the lines for 15 minutes, another rinse, then sanitizer, followed by hooking up the keg and dispensing. I use a 2 gallon bucket and a pond pump to run/recirculate the rinse/cleaner/rinse/sanitizer through the beer line(s). If the last keg kicked recently, then I'll just usually do a hot rinse before hooking up the next keg. I'll do a full on cleaning after every 2-3 kegs or if that line hasn't been used in a while.

You mentioned the keg's "internal dip tube". That's different. I usually just rinse/sanitize the keg for the next batch if the previous keg just emptied. If the keg has set a while, then I'll break it down and clean it with PBW or dish detergent. I'll have the small parts in a mesh tea infuser, so they don't get lost, soaking in cleaner while I'll scrub the insides of the keg with a telescoping tile scrub brush.

On another note, if you have had your beer lines for a while and think they may need to be replaced, I'd look to EVA Barrier for the lines and Duo Tight for the fittings if you don't already have that. A lot of us run that setup and swear by it. The lines and fittings (a push to connect style) are fairly affordable too, a big plus. Hope this helps.

 

[BasementArtie]

I just use BLC (Beer Line Cleaner) to clean my lines. I'll do a hot water rinse, then recirculate BLC in the lines for 15 minutes, another rinse, then sanitizer, followed by hooking up the keg and dispensing. I use a 2 gallon bucket and a pond pump to run/recirculate the rinse/cleaner/rinse/sanitizer through the beer line(s). If the last keg kicked recently, then I'll just usually do a hot rinse before hooking up the next keg. I'll do a full on cleaning after every 2-3 kegs or if that line hasn't been used in a while.

You mentioned the keg's "internal dip tube". That's different. I usually just rinse/sanitize the keg for the next batch if the previous keg just emptied. If the keg has set a while, then I'll break it down and clean it with PBW or dish detergent. I'll have the small parts in a mesh tea infuser, so they don't get lost, soaking in cleaner while I'll scrub the insides of the keg with a telescoping tile scrub brush.

On another note, if you have had your beer lines for a while and think they may need to be replaced, I'd look to EVA Barrier for the lines and Duo Tight for the fittings if you don't already have that. A lot of us run that setup and swear by it. The lines and fittings (a push to connect style) are fairly affordable too, a big plus. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply, the thing about the dip tube was just a comparison. I was stating as the dip tube is in the keg and we don't worry about cleaning that every 2-6 weeks then how would be waiting to clean the beer lines (refrigerated in the same kegerator) be any different. I am wondering if the 1-2 weeks cleaning of lines advice was aimed at bars and pubs who's lines weren't cooled (rather at cellar temp) which allowed yeast to thrive in the lines.

May I ask how long in time (weeks) it would be for those 2-3 kegs before you clean the beer line?

Already using Evabarrier and duotight/John guest

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I clean my six tap lines roughly every 6 months, using a manifold and submersible pump to recirculate BLC or LLC - whichever I have on hand - and clean all six lines in parallel. All tubing (beer, gas, rinser water, etc) is EVABarrier with 525ss faucets and a crapton of PTC connectors...

Cheers!

 

[Willy]

I like to clean up the lines every 4-6 weeks.
I use BLC in a bucket that gets pushed by a sump pump (lots of gallons per minute flow) into a 4 way manifold. I let it run for about 15 minutes, 4 taps at once. After I clean all the lines with BLC I run a hot water rinse , and then a warm star San run to further rinse.
Before serving - I pour a little out of every tap to flush the lines and load them up with lovely beer.

Each time a keg kicks - I clean it thoroughly. That means the beer out and gas in pipettes get pulled and put in a long paint bin for cleaning and the posts also get pulled and cleaned.

Do it right. Easier that way.

 

[Yesfan]

Thanks for the reply, the thing about the dip tube was just a comparison. I was stating as the dip tube is in the keg and we don't worry about cleaning that every 2-6 weeks then how would be waiting to clean the beer lines (refrigerated in the same kegerator) be any different. I am wondering if the 1-2 weeks cleaning of lines advice was aimed at bars and pubs who's lines weren't cooled (rather at cellar temp) which allowed yeast to thrive in the lines.

May I ask how long in time (weeks) it would be for those 2-3 kegs before you clean the beer line?

Already using Evabarrier and duotight/John guest

The 1-2 weeks thing I haven't heard, so maybe that's a pub/bar thing. I don't clean the lines connected to a keg in service. Once that keg cleans, then I clean the lines. Cleaning it before a keg kicks seems like extra work to me. For one, the beer line is also refrigerated like the keg's dip tube so if you aren't worried about the dip tube, no need to worry about the beer line connected to it. The other is, while you are cleaning your kegs, you can have cleaner recirculating in your beer lines. Two birds with one stone.

 

[RAmeeti]

Another take on this...
https://www.tastingtable.com/1697344/why-you-should-never-order-draft-beer/

 

[matt_m]

I bought one plastic carbonation cap setups that allows you to connect a ball lock liquid line and gas line to a PET bottle and saved a couple 2L bottles. Whenever I pull an empty keg out of my keezer I fill a bottle with hot water and run it through the the tap then follow with a couple pints of Starsan. If connecting another keg I'll just push the Starsan out with the beer, otherwise I'll let the CO2 blow out of the empty bottle to clear the lines. This arrangement also works well for cleaning my can filler and beer gun.

The 2L bottles are pretty thin and we don't use too many so at some point when I'm ordering from More Beer I'll probably get a couple Oxebar kegs.

When I think about it I clean the lines with BLC using the same setup. Don't store mixed BLC in a PET bottle, it'll eventually disintegrate. DAMHIKT.