I see that there are products that say I should “mix and pump through the lines and tap”. Other people recommend dissembling and soaking. Any suggestions and products ideas would be appreciated. The lines are not “stained “ and the tap doesn’t leak. I built a kezzer last year and I will need to start swapping kegs soon.
Emptied my first keg. Line and tap cleaning?
- Thread starter JMV
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What I do, and have been doing since I started, is use my homemade keg and bucket washer with some Craftmeister brewery wash and clean out my keg. I will then take that and put it in my keg and run it thru my tap and lines as if I am serving beer. I then take warm to hot water and fill up my keg and do the same to rinse out the brewery wash. Once all that is done, I will then mix up some starsan, usually just two or three gallons and add it to my keg and run that thru the lines a few times to make sure it get's everything. With that said, I am sure a complete disassembly of my beer lines and tap will be in order the next time I empty a keg, but I am just kinda lazy like that. LOL.
No need to clean your beer lines after every keg. Do it periodically as needed. However you should disassemble the keg and thoroughly clean it after every use in my opinion. I have a keg washer, so I disassemble the keg, soak the parts in PBW and run the keg through the washer. Also, I use keg lube on all the washers after each use.
I do both at the same time. I'll use my homemade keg washer and let it run. https://brulosophy.com/2016/12/22/brublaster-keg-carboy-washer-do-it-yourself/
While that is going, I'll use my beer cleaning dedicated 1G bug sprayer with a carbonation cap and rinse out the line with hot water to flush out all the beer gunk. Then I'll recirculate with an aquarium pump up the keg line, out the faucet some BLC for 20 minutes or so.
While that is going, I'll go scrub, rinse and disassemble the keg.
Then the bug sprayer comes back out, flush with water, then with StarSan, then again with RO water. I'll leave RO water in the lines until I hook something back up at which time I'll flush with StarSan, then connect.
Probably overkill, but that is what I've been doing since I got the kegerator and haven't had any problems with off taste, infection or anything like that so sticking with what works.
While that is going, I'll use my beer cleaning dedicated 1G bug sprayer with a carbonation cap and rinse out the line with hot water to flush out all the beer gunk. Then I'll recirculate with an aquarium pump up the keg line, out the faucet some BLC for 20 minutes or so.
While that is going, I'll go scrub, rinse and disassemble the keg.
Then the bug sprayer comes back out, flush with water, then with StarSan, then again with RO water. I'll leave RO water in the lines until I hook something back up at which time I'll flush with StarSan, then connect.
Probably overkill, but that is what I've been doing since I got the kegerator and haven't had any problems with off taste, infection or anything like that so sticking with what works.
Much easier now that I've switched to Duo-Tight connectors and EvaBarrier tubing. When the keg kicks I pop off the tubing and soak it, and either clean or swap in a cleaned QD. If ready, a fresh keg immediately gets tapped. I only clean the faucet a couple times a year, as long as I get a fresh keg going right away. If it's going to be a while before I have a fresh keg I remove and thoroughly clean the faucet. I don't want the faucet sitting without pressurized beer for very long.
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I use a three 2 liter bottle method with carbonation cap and piece of Eva tubing long enough to reach the bottom; one with PBW, one with StarSan, one with carbonated water. Pressurized with co2, connect to ball lock disconnect and serve one of each, in that order. That works for me. I use a similar method with a .5 liter bottle for adding finings or gelatin to a keg when transferring/racking. YMMV
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I did the same thing with a 2L bottle and carb caps for sanitizing and purging lines....
..I did use it a few times with PBW for kegerator line cleaning, but now I just take off the tap and drop it into a pitcher set on the floor in front of my kegerator and put a carb cap on the beer line I've set in the pitcher and pump from the top with one of these:
https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-line-cleaning-kit.html
..let the tap soak a bit and then scrub it out with a brush in my kitchen sink, rinse everything out and reattach.
..I did use it a few times with PBW for kegerator line cleaning, but now I just take off the tap and drop it into a pitcher set on the floor in front of my kegerator and put a carb cap on the beer line I've set in the pitcher and pump from the top with one of these:
https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-line-cleaning-kit.html
..let the tap soak a bit and then scrub it out with a brush in my kitchen sink, rinse everything out and reattach.
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
I'll use PBW, BLC, or Oxiclean when needed without disassembling anything. Just a fill, sit, then flush. I will take the faucets off, disassemble and thoroughly clean whenever I swap that faucet out for a stout faucet. I try to rotate what position gets the stout to rotate the 'deep clean' schedule.
Built one of these years ago based on an old post... works perfectly. You'll need to use a Firestone Liquid Post https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/plug-assembly-liq-type-a-challenger-v-vi and I believe the brass adapter is a 3/8" Flare by 3/8" FIP.
