How is easy is converting/cleaning commercial kegs for homebrew?

[jcorn]

I purchased a 15.5 gallon annheuser keg from a local liquor store years ago and was looking to convert it to use with my homebrew for 15 and 10 gallon batches inside of my Nostalgia kegerator (currently has a ball lock connected to the faucet). I have watched the youtube stuff on how to remove the rings and pull out the spears but is it really as easy as it looks? How nasty can I expect these kegs to be and how hard are they to clean? Will a good overnight soak in some hot pbw take care of it and star san before use? I also have a carboy cleaner that attaches to my drill so I could stick that in there and spin clean some of it if needed. I would guess they would not get too nasty unless you fermented in them.
I currently own a "d" coupler tap that came with my kegerator originally and am about to purchase a sanke to ball lock conversion post (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ball-lock-conversion-kit-for-sanke-coupler.html) so I can apply all of my current equipment to it and still be able to take it on the road to partys and easily serve via ball lock connections. Am I thinking along the right path or am I missing something?

 

[PosterGuy]

Unless it needs servicing you don't need to remove the valve spear in order to clean, sanitize, and refill a reasonably fresh commercial keg.

To do this you need to remove the check valves from an extra keg tap and use a pump capable of filling and emptying the keg through it's dip tube (beer out line).

Cold water rinse > Hot PBW soak > thorough cold water rinse > sanitizer rinse > fill w/ boiled water and purge with CO2 until empty > fill with fresh beer.

No, the foam is not really your friend here.
Effort should be made to rinse the excess "no rinse" sanitizer from the keg before filling.

If you want to carbonate naturally in the keg, you need to cover the in/out lines of a keg coupler with pennies or use beer thread caps to seal these lines and use the pressure relief valve on the coupler for safety.
A pressure gauge makes a nice addition for this.



A commercial keg that has been left sitting around for years is a different story and might serve you better as a table stand or a keggle.

You should rinse and PBW a keg as soon as possible after the beer is finished. Residue left in a warm keg will quickly become overgrown with spoilage organisms and become much more difficult to clean.

 

[jcorn]

Unless it needs servicing you don't need to remove the valve spear in order to clean, sanitize, and refill a reasonably fresh commercial keg.

To do this you need to remove the check valves from an extra keg tap and use a pump capable of filling and emptying the keg through it's dip tube (beer out line).

Cold water rinse > Hot PBW soak > thorough cold water rinse > sanitizer rinse > fill w/ boiled water and purge with CO2 until empty > fill with fresh beer.

No, the foam is not really your friend here.
Effort should be made to rinse the excess "no rinse" sanitizer from the keg before filling.

If you want to carbonate naturally in the keg, you need to cover the in/out lines of a keg coupler with pennies or use beer thread caps to seal these lines and use the pressure relief valve on the coupler for safety.
A pressure gauge makes a nice addition for this.



A commercial keg that has been left sitting around for years is a different story and might serve you better as a table stand or a keggle.

You should rinse and PBW a keg as soon as possible after the beer is finished. Residue left in a warm keg will quickly become overgrown with spoilage organisms and become much more difficult to clean.

Why is the foam so bad in terms of the keg?

This guy has been sitting in my garage since maybe 2010? now with a little beer left in it. Is it not going to be worth the hastle of cleaning?

 

[snowman_fs]

I adopted the try it and see attitude. Long story short, they work fine but I would recommend opening the keg and peeking in. At least the first time.

A friend worked sales for a local brewery and had a few old kegs kicking around his basement that I wanted to try home brew in. Figured I'd brew a low value lager to test the possibility.

After opening a keg that sat since 2007 I found a huge growth of mold on the bottom plus hop matter on the sides. Hot water rinse, pbw soak/shake, hot water rinse followed by a gallon of starsan that sat in it until ready, (maybe a week).

I transfered from primary into this keg and lagered for 60+ days before I tapped it. No issues. Ended up being a very easy drinking Dunkel. Just kicked the keg about a week ago.

 

[mattd2]

I adopted the try it and see attitude. Long story short, they work fine but I would recommend opening the keg and peeking in. At least the first time.

A friend worked sales for a local brewery and had a few old kegs kicking around his basement that I wanted to try home brew in. Figured I'd brew a low value lager to test the possibility.

After opening a keg that sat since 2007 I found a huge growth of mold on the bottom plus hop matter on the sides. Hot water rinse, pbw soak/shake, hot water rinse followed by a gallon of starsan that sat in it until ready, (maybe a week).

I transfered from primary into this keg and lagered for 60+ days before I tapped it. No issues. Ended up being a very easy drinking Dunkel. Just kicked the keg about a week ago.

Wow! How did a piece of mould that big come out of a hole that small? I guess only a woman would be able to answer that for us

 

[jcorn]

I adopted the try it and see attitude. Long story short, they work fine but I would recommend opening the keg and peeking in. At least the first time.

A friend worked sales for a local brewery and had a few old kegs kicking around his basement that I wanted to try home brew in. Figured I'd brew a low value lager to test the possibility.

After opening a keg that sat since 2007 I found a huge growth of mold on the bottom plus hop matter on the sides. Hot water rinse, pbw soak/shake, hot water rinse followed by a gallon of starsan that sat in it until ready, (maybe a week).

I transfered from primary into this keg and lagered for 60+ days before I tapped it. No issues. Ended up being a very easy drinking Dunkel. Just kicked the keg about a week ago.

Wow that is nasty! haha I don't think Annheuser Busch uses hops so residue shouldn't be a problem for me. I finally got my keg opened today and quite honestly I did not say anything bad inside of it. It smelled pretty sour of course but after a few rinses it started to drive that smell away. I put 5 tablespoons of PBW into it along with 5 gallons of 140 degree water and shook it like crazy and soaking overnight. Hopefully that will do all of my dirty work.
There has got to be an alternative to using that stupid ring. I have one hell of a time getting that thing back in. It still seems like it is not all of the way in either. Is there maybe a c-ring/ washer? or something that could be used instead of that crappy thing? Could you maybe just not even use it at all and just be careful using a coupler?

 

[jcorn]

Actully just came acrossed the different rings you can use and their parts numbers on a seperate thread.

Materials:

1x O-ring: 1 7/8" OD & 5/8" ID(making it 1/8" thick...) I used a Silicone o-ring for mine(McMaster 9396K215)

1 x SS-316 Internal Spiral Retaining Ring (McMaster #92370A251)
OR
1x 2" bore SS Internal Snap Retaining Ring (Mcmaster #91580A246)