How often do you clean/sanitize your faucets when in use?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Diablotastic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
217
Reaction score
0
Location
Northbridge, MA
So I've recently made the jump to kegging and love it. I've got two corny's both using your cheapo standard picnic taps until i can fully modify my fridge for some perlick faucets.

How often (if at all) do you guys try and clean/sanitize your lines faucets during the life of a keg? I'm thinking a typical keg will last me about 4-6 weeks on average.

I picked up a very faint sour old beer taste on the 1st pint of the day i pulled off my my latest ESB thats int he keg right now....kinda reminisent of that keg party taste I remeber from when i was younger which was probably a result of old beer in those rent-a-taps

I'm thinking I should quite possibly soak the picnic tap in some sanitizer maybe once a week or maybe dissconnect the liquid line for a full cleaning/sanitizing every so often.

Is this a by-product of the plastic picnic taps or something that the most of you try and combat :mug:
 
i clean mine when i finish da keg, i haven't had any funky taste with mine. if there is dried beer on the spout i dip it in starsan,
 
Never used it with homebrewing but when I had my kegerator set up I only cleaned the lines between kegs. If it had been sitting a while (more than 2 days or so) without anyone drawing any off I would run maybe 1/4 cup of beer into the drip tray before filling my glass. That's all.
 
Might just be the beer sitting in your lines on the first pour- Is your first pour warmer and less carbonated/foamy? If it is, I'd add a fan/copper to help keep your lines cool (or waste it/deal with it).

I would recommend with standard taps to keep a glass with starsan solution handy, or a spray bottle, and hit it up after or before pouring. I don't know if it will help the off taste of the beer, but will help keep your taps from sticking if you go an extended period of time before drafts.
 
I clean mine with BLC (Beer Line Cleaner) whenever I finish a keg. I just run it through, let it sit for 20 minutes and then rinse. The faucets and couplers also get removed and cleaned/soaked.

I believe that BLC (as opposed to Star San, Oxyclean, etc..) is the way to go for this procedure as it is specifically designed for this job. It is the industry standard and its cheap.
 
I don't think I've truly cleaned and sanitized my lines yet since I started kegging early last year. I've run star san through the lines every now and then, but not much more. Even though everyone seems to like my beer, maybe it's time to give them a more thorough cleaning.

I do shoot starsan up into the nozzle of my perlicks routinely and pull the nozzle off and wash/sanitize every few weeks or so.
 
I clean my lines, couplers, and faucets with BLC/DAC and rinse well whenever I switch kegs. If I take my kegs apart to thoroughly clean, I also run star san through everything. I recently came across DAC when shopping for BLC. The ingredients are the same and the price/oz is the same, but you only use half as much DAC as BLC. Effectively reducing the cost by 1/2. It seems to work just as well. Has anyone had any other results?
 
I break everything down bewteen kegs and soak in line cleaner. Yes, even the shanks. I find it to be much easier than the line cleaning pumpuhmajig and more thorough.

Plus, it give me a chance to inspect the condition of the gaskets in the faucets.

The only bit I have yet to take apart is the disconnect. For that, I just hook it onto the removed keg post. Occasionally it'll knock the poppet out but usually not. IMO, another benifit to MFL disconnects.
 
I routinely open the disconnects. I've found some moldy hop residue in there before.
 
Every time I rack to a keg, I sanitize the keg first and then pump it through the taps, even if I have some kegs hooked up, I just disconnect them and then connect the gas and the beverage lines to the the keg with sanitizer in it.

Two birds with one stone. The keg gets its poppets sanitized, and my lines get cleaned.
 
Every time I rack to a keg, I sanitize the keg first and then pump it through the taps, even if I have some kegs hooked up, I just disconnect them and then connect the gas and the beverage lines to the the keg with sanitizer in it.

Two birds with one stone. The keg gets its poppets sanitized, and my lines get cleaned.

+1

Maybe every 2 months or so, I'll fill up a half a keg with hot oxyclean, a half keg with a tepid mild bleach solution, and a half keg with just hot water. Then run each keg through the lines of each tap in that order. Run each keg into a bucket then refill it and run it through the next tap. Might be overdoing it, but I love knowing my lines are spotless.
 
Oh, you guys are scaring me. I haven't cleaned mine yet, but I've only run about 1.5 kegs through it. It's been months though. I think I better figure on getting that done in the near future. Although the taste hasn't changed yet.
 
When I put in a new keg, I put oxiclean in it and run through the taps, then rinse it with hot water, then run the oxi-clean free hot water through the taps, then sanitize the keg and run that through the tap. Then I don't do anything while the beer it on tap. But my kegs have only last 2-3 weeks.
 
I clean the lines and taps with BLC about every third keg or so. I push sanitizer through the system between each keg. Never had a problem or off taste doing it that way.
 
Back
Top