First time cleaning of equipment

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daphatgrant

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Hey HBT, I'm getting ready to clean all of my equipment for it's first use and I'm looking for a little direction. I've been buying parts and pieces for a while now so I've got a lot of stuff to do a first time cleaning on. Everything is new so I'm looking for removing any manufacturing oils etc. I'll list them below.

1. Keg - Ball Lock. I took the posts off, removed all of the O-rings from both tubes, the post itself, the big O-ring on top and the O-ring out of the poppets. I plan to clean all of the metal parts in warm TSP followed by a hot soap and water soak, followed by a hot water rinse. Wash all of the O-rings in a dawn dish soap solution followed by a hot water rinse. Is this ok?

2. Ball Lock disconnects (beverage), I broke them down as much as I think I can (unscrew the top, remove the spring, o-rings, etc) and plan to wash all of these in a hot water/dawn solution and then rinse with hot water. Sound ok? Do I break down and clean the gas disconnects as well?

3. Faucets, shanks, nuts & barbs (beverage), I broke everything down and plan to wash everything the same as I said for the keg, TSP for everything metal, dawn and hot water for everything rubber/plastic. Damn those faucets have a lot of O-rings! Does this sound ok? Do I need to clean the barbs and nuts for the gas side as well?

4. Hose, I've got a fair amount of 1/2" silicone hose that I need to clean, suggestions on that? I've got brushes that I can use to clean the inside but I'm not sure what method I should use for cleaning these.

I already cleaned all of my SS fittings, ball valves and disconnects in TSP followed Dawn/hot water and then a final rinse. I broke down all of the female disconnects and washed the O-rings with just dawn and hot water.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff that I'll add later. As soon as I get everything cleaned I'm actually ready to start brewing, I can hardly wait! :D.

Thanks for any help. :mug:
 
Here is what I would try. Find a local craft or micro brewery ask very nicely if they would use their caustic and paracedic to soak your keg in. It will be good as new.

Now... If you got an older or used keg, then throw away the old o-rings and pop-it valves and just replace them. They aren't that expensive. They retain the flavor of old sodas and root beers.
 
No TSP or dish soap. Soak and clean with PBW or equivalent to get rid of oil and or debris with a sponge or microfiber towel. If there is oil residue inside the keg then I would go caustic after PBW.
 
Nearly EVERYTHING encountered from 'normal' cask and keg in the brewery is cleaned pretty quickly with an initial water rinse, a few minutes of chlorinated caustic rinse, manual attention with a pressure washer if needed for stubborn baked on bits and finally 15-20 seconds of pressurised steam to flush any caustic and sanitise before closing. These are all done with spray balls and pumps. Yeah eventually you encounter one that was left half full of yeasty beer and dry hop open to the elements outside somewhere for months and months which is full of peculiar slime and dead flies (if you are lucky, wasps if not), but TBH an extra few minutes of caustic rinsing performs miracles 99% of the time and 10 seconds with the pressure washer sorts out the other 1%. If they aren't being washed correctly or timely eventually cask and keg will develop discolouration/tarnish inside which is not possible to remove without soaking so we pump them full of caustic, close them up and leave them for about a week before putting them back on to rinse. While this has never failed and we don't have to resort to the nitric acid I do want to say that most of the cleaning power of caustic is down to movement and abrasion, contact time is good, but does not clean alone so the superstitious amongst us might roll them every now and then. If you aren't relying on elbow grease you need a sufficiently turbulent flow.

Peracetic acid is our go to no rinse sanitiser, it has no ability to clean by itself and it works instantly so we don't soak anything. You don't want this anywhere near the chlorinated caustic. We use chlorinated for anything cold, regular for anything hot. Most things get a nitric rinse once every 12 weeks.
 
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