How often do you clean/change your beer lines?

[Phunhog]

Just curious. I have a keezer but I just keep the kegs hooked up with picnic taps. When one keg kicks I put the tap on the next keg. I usually don't clean it or sanitize it but I am thinking that maybe I should. I have an American Amber that was tasting really good but it seems to be picking up an "off" flavor. I am thinking the beer line might be the culprit.

 

[Celticway]

Try hooking up a cheap picknic tap to see if it is indeed the line or the beer itself. I usually run sanitizer through once a month or so.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, when I have a keg kick I pull it, hook up a spare keg with a gallon of BLC, run that through the beer line and out the faucet, let it sit overnight, then flush it, before hooking up the next keg...

Cheers!

 

[Weizenwerks]

Clean monthly, replace annually.

 

[JKoravos]

I've left them for a long time before, 6+ months. Some disgusting looking crap came out of those taps when I cleaned them. Yuck.

 

[a_shorething]

I keep a spare keg filled with sanitizer solution in it and flush the lines every couple of weeks by just unhooking the lines and putting the 'cleaning' keg on there. Then if I have any unused taps, I leave the star-san in the line.

I also completely disassemble all of the taps about once a month and soak them in hot water, then star-san.

Also, I have those black plastic tap covers that you can get online for like 50 cents. Since my kegerator is in the garage I need to keep the fruit flies out of there between uses.


I think the biggest difference between good homebrew and nasty homebrew is the sanitization techniques. I know people who have tried it and their beer had all kinds of things wrong with it and they couldn't tell why. Then if you talk to them you find out they took all kinds of shortcuts or assumed things didn't matter when they were cleaning or bottling their stuff.

not clean=nasty
Clean=tasty

Clean monthly, replace annually.

...thanks! I had never heard that anywhere. Good to know!

 

[Hammy71]

Like others, I run cleaner between kegs (usually...). I try to change the beer lines and disassemble the taps about once a year. Probably should do it more often, but what the hell.

 

[TheBrewinator]

At minimum, I'll run really hot water through after a keg kicks but I try to run BLC through after every keg unless I'm going immediately from something like a pale ale to an IPA, then I'll just flush and hook up the next keg.

 

[Agentaaron]

I keep a spare keg filled with sanitizer solution in it and flush the lines every couple of weeks by just unhooking the lines and putting the 'cleaning' keg on there. Then if I have any unused taps, I leave the star-san in the line.

I do the same, but not on a regular basis. I have a spare keg with Sanitizer that I run when switching kegs.

I really need to get me some of those faucet covers. While I don't have a problem with fruit flies...it would probably be a good preventive measure. I just hate to order something so cheap and end up spending more than the item costs on shipping.

If anyone is planning on an order soon, grab me six and I will gladly buy them from you

 

[birvine]

I, too, clean between kegs. When one is emptied I clean it and flush cleaner through it via the faucet and lines of the kegerator.

B