Can you sanitize your keg in advance?

[Nukesquad]

I'm relatively new to kegging, but haven't had any issues thus far (*knock on wood). I was curious if I would be able to sanitize a couple of kegs days prior to actually filling them. My thought is that if I sanitize them, run off all liquid through the line, and keep the keg filled with CO2 (as long as there are no leaks...which I haven't encountered any yet), they should be ready to go when I would need them.

Has anybody tried this? If so, any issues with this method?

Thanks for the help!

 

[geniz]

When I clean my kegs, I fill them partially with starsan, hit them with some CO2 tag em and they're ready for kegging day. Decompress them, shake them to coat everything in starsan, empty and fill. Easy peezy

 

[day_trippr]

I keep my offline corny kegs filled with standard Iodophor solution. When I go to rack some brew into one I drain it in the kitchen sink, stand it up and push the poppets to release any Iodophor within, drain it again, then leave it inverted on the kitchen counter until I actually rack in the brew...

Cheers!

 

[jcaudill]

Really all you need to do is clean, sanitize and then put them under a CO2 blanket. No need to keep sanitizer in it. You can clean then days, weeks, months ahead of time even. Matter of fact clean them after you're done using them, sanitize, CO2 blanket and you'll never have to think about this come brew day.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I wash a bunch of kegs at a time, sanitize them, then pressurize them with CO2. They could be stored like that for 6-8 months before they get filled. I wouldn't be concerned if they go even longer, but I prefer full kegs over empty ones. ;-)

 

[Golddiggie]

Part of my cleaning process for when a keg kicks is to sanitize them with StarSan, run some through the beer line it just left, and then drain the rest out via the liquid post (I use a jumper with only one QD on it, running the rest into the sink, or bucket of StarSan). I then hit the keg with 5-10psi (enough to seal) and set it aside for when it will be filled. I have three kegs in this state right now. When I get some new kegs in, I'll simply run StarSan through them and set them aside for filling.

 

[dutchoven]

I do pretty much the same as above, except I prefer to store them "dry". I sanitize with starsan, drain, and store under pressure. As long as the keg is pressurized on the day I fill, all is well.

 

[passedpawn]

I don't feel comfortable unless I've hit them with starsan just before filling. I do what others above said, but when it's kegging time I go just one more. 11. You know when your at 10, and you need a little bit more, where do you go? Right, 11. Mine go to 11. Cheerrio.

 

[Jukas]

I always store mine under pressure with a bit of star san in them. Normally what I'll do when a keg kicks is rinse it out then fill it with oxyclean, pressurize it and then run the oxy through the beer line to clean out any left over beer or gunk in there. Once I've run a gallon or so through it, I'll dump the rest, rinse the keg with fresh water and then run another gallon through the beers lines. Then I fill it with a gallon of star san solution, pressurize it an run off a pint or two through the beer lines, so they remain full of sanitizer. Then I set the keg aside. When I'm ready to fill it I shake up the star san, hit the poppet on the liquid post and then depressurize the keg and drain off the star san and fill with beer.

Probably overkill, but I've yet to have funky tasting beer from dirty lines and have had no sanitation issues with kegging.

 

[StMarcos]

I wouldn't trust stored sanitized equipment to stay that way. I store everything destined for the cold end of the brew process clean and dry. Keeping dust away is important if you don't want to have to clean again before use. Sanitize just before contact is good brewing process imo.

 

[jcaudill]

It's fine dry - only if it's under a CO2 blanket. After sanitizing, you use CO2 to push the sanitizer out and then you have an oxygen-free environment. Hardly anything can grow in the presence of CO2.