cleaner to leave in keg?

[gnef]

Hi, i've been kegging for a bit, but recently started to build a kegerator. i know the BLC kit is what you are 'supposed' to use to clean out the lines, but i just can't justify it to myself to buy a pump to push cleaner through my lines when i have co2 and extra kegs...

so i plan on keeping one of my kegs with a cleaner in it to clean through the lines and such.

is BLC still what to use to leave in a keg indefinitely? i know i can't use the ones like one step that use oxygen (right?), and i know that there are a lot of cleaners out there.

i would prefer to only have to sacrifice one keg. by this i mean, i would like for the cleaner i use to be a no-rinse thing, but still be able to work well so i don't have to use another keg for just rinsing water. am i asking too much?

 

[kornkob]

Personally I don't keep the cleaner around--- I send it down the drain when I'm done cleaning kegs. It's cheap enough that I see no reason to keep it. Besides, cleaner that's been sent through a dirty keg isn't going to be 'clean' cleaner anymore--- it'll have all the deposits and gunk in it that it pulled out of the keg just cleaned.

I usually clean the keg after use and then it goes into the basement lid off and upside down to the storage shelf. When I need to keg, I pull a lid and a keg up, do a quick rinse, sanitize and install the lid, push sanitizer through the thing, purge the oxy with co2 and then rack it over.

 

[gnef]

i think i was a bit unclear. what i want to do is to clean my lines in the future when a keg with beer goes dry. instead of buying the BLC system with the pump, i want to just put 5 gallons of a cleaner in a spare keg, and then when i need to, i just run it through the lines.

 

[kornkob]

Through the lines and Out the tap-- I see.

Why not use the now empty keg to clean the lines.
Rinse keg, make cleaner in rised keg.
Push cleaner out of keg through lines.
Fill now empty keg with water
Push water through lines.

Do whatever you do to clean and store your keg.



Buying a 'normal' pump thingy seems like a small price to pay though. $20 for a keg or $20 for a line cleaner kit--- and one of them is a lot easier to store.

 

[gnef]

well, i don't plan on cleaning very often (i don't drink enough to go through kegs that quickly), so i was wanting something that could store well in solution that would still not require any rinse. just something to hook up when i needed it to, then put it back away.

 

[kornkob]

It sure sounds ot me that the typical BLC pump system is exactly what you want. Storing any cleaner long term is going to have ill effects on the keg. Besides, tying up a keg with cleaner seems like a crime in and of iself, especically if you don't have many to start with.

For occasional use, the BLC Pump is great. If you were changing things out more often, maybe a dedicated keg would make more sense.

 

[Monster Mash]

I only use cleaner if the lines are going to be unused for a while. If Im changing styles on a tap I rinse out the keg that just emptied, boil a gallon of water and run that through the lines. It cleans the keg and the lines.