I need heavy cleaning tips for a cornelius keg.

[JonFromBrazil]

Hey guys, I recently bought an old cornelius keg (it's in good shape, but it requires an special care, lol). What I really want to do is dismantle everything and make sure that every piece is clean as new.

Any tips? What kind of cleaners and sanitizers do I use?

 

[dfess1]

pbw and whatever your favorite sanitizer is

 

[eluterio]

Depends on how bad it is and what type of cola is in it. Through My experience with dark cola Ive done two things. 1) Boil from 2 to 5 gallons of water dump it into the keg let soak for 15 mins empty and scrub and rinse. Repeat or reuse the water if its horribly bad. Carfully the kegs get hot as hell and if you dont have a funnel or a valve to drain can be a challenge unless you boil small amounts. I then at min 2.75 gallons of water and about 2.5 to 3 oz of pbw depending on the odor of soda left in the keg. If I have more than one keg I will just fill it up max water and put about 1.25 oz per gallon of water. I let it sit overnight then transfer it to the next keg, repeat if necessary. Dismantle the parts afterwards remove the o rings, toss them out! When people say that can penetrate the o-rings they do and your beer can taste like the soda it was in. I boil the small parts for about 20 mins after I remove the o rings just to make sure I get all the soda taste out. If you have a brush long enough to get inside the dip tube do it or just go to your local HBS and pick one up. This will make sure you get all the soda out. Doing it this way for me I was able to get most of the syrup and smell out. I know it seems like a ton of work but trust me its well worth it.

When I first started kegging 8 months ago I just used PBW scrubbed everything, look on you tube and went back and cleaned it out again. I still had a taste of soda. I didn’t remove the dip tube and let it dry it had soda still on it and the beer was infected. That’s when I read somewhere here on Homebrew talk to use boiling water.

The other way ive done it and it was only on mountain dew and sprite the lighter sodas. Fill with hot water and add a stronger mix of pbw about 2 oz to gallon let sit overnight or even longer just when I had time to get to it. It seems to be do the job and I didn’t have any smell of soda in it then I boil the small parts and change the o rings. Changing the O rings will eliminate the smell of soda trust me. O Rings are pretty check you can pick them up at http://www.mcmaster.com/#o-rings/=myn2sq I get the silicone ones recommended by Bobby from brewhardware.com number to look for are #109, #111, and #417. I ordered my a month ago and total price of it was under 40 bucks. 5 big o rings, 50 each of the others for the dip tube, co2 tube and the ball lock connectors. If you plan on getting more kegs I would buy in bulk you will be happier that you did.

As for sanitation Ive done two different ways, one let all the parts dry and store diconnected. When ready to fill I used starsan to sanitize. The other way was I put the kegs together added about 1 quart of starsan filled with about 10 psi of co2 shook it up and let it sit. So far both worked well for me.

 

[davekippen]

I've gotten some pretty nasty kegs. Syrup and funky mold. Here is what I do.

1 fully dismantle posts, poppets, gas and liquid tubes
2 rinse keg with hot water a couple times
3 fill to brim with oxyclean and water
4 rinse all small parts in hot water
5 put long liquid tube in keg to soak
6 put small parts and lid in bowl of oxy and water (all seals thrown away)
7 next day, rinse everything. Check for chunks. Scrub if needed
8 sanitize small parts and new seals, reassemble, add a gallon of sanitizer, seal and shake
9 that's it!

 

[eluterio]

I've gotten some pretty nasty kegs. Syrup and funky mold. Here is what I do.

1 fully dismantle posts, poppets, gas and liquid tubes
2 rinse keg with hot water a couple times
3 fill to brim with oxyclean and water
4 rinse all small parts in hot water
5 put long liquid tube in keg to soak
6 put small parts and lid in bowl of oxy and water (all seals thrown away)
7 next day, rinse everything. Check for chunks. Scrub if needed
8 sanitize small parts and new seals, reassemble, add a gallon of sanitizer, seal and shake
9 that's it!

I would use caution when using oxy clean on stainless steel, it will corrode if let sit for long periods of time. If you use oxy clean I would recommend soaking it for about 15 mins scrub the hell out of it rinse. If you can get PBW it will not eat away stainless and ive left mine sit for up to 48 hours.

The rest looks and sound good!

 

[davekippen]

I dont think the Oxy in a keg myth is real. I cant find anyone who has actually found it to corrode a keg. Here is a thread to check out

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/oxiclean-stainless-i-dare-you-prove-me-wrong-238193/

 

[Monster Mash]

I would use caution when using oxy clean on stainless steel, it will corrode if let sit for long periods of time. If you use oxy clean I would recommend soaking it for about 15 mins scrub the hell out of it rinse. If you can get PBW it will not eat away stainless and ive left mine sit for up to 48 hours.

The rest looks and sound good!

Oxy clean and PBW are almost the same except PBW has additional cleaners in it.

Bleach is bad for stainless so stay away from bleach based cleaners.

 

[JRems]

The best way for a really nasty keg is barkeepers friend and a scotchbrite pad on a stick. A toilet brush works well too( make sure it's new ;P)