Is kegging that much of a PITA?

[Yesfan]

Many advantages to kegging, but a marked decrease in sharing with friends is a definite downside.

Nah, I don't think so. I seem to share more as I don't know how much beer is left in a keg vs how many bottles I have left (another reason why I like doing 10 gallon batches). With bottles, if I got down so far I'd hold off sharing until I made more.

Gave my boss, who also home brews, a 40oz growler of stout I made.

 

[tellyho]

Have to agree. I was a bottler for 12 years and gave away a lot more then. Harder to give away now.

 

[Kharnynb]

one question about kegging that always bugs me, how often do you wash out your lines?

When working as a bartender, we were supposed to rinse the line at the end of every service and it would get disinfected once per month, which would sound like a hassle on homebrew setups.

 

[Gduck]

one question about kegging that always bugs me, how often do you wash out your lines?

When working as a bartender, we were supposed to rinse the line at the end of every service and it would get disinfected once per month, which would sound like a hassle on homebrew setups.

I clean mine every time I change the keg that is in that line. Okay, I’ll be honest, on occasion when I switch a keg I get lazy and just run water through it to flush it out. But I do try to actually run some cleaner and then sanitizer through a line anytime I change the keg. Every few changes I run BLC(beer line cleaner) through it to keep beerstone from building up. Probably twice a year I disconnect everything, disassemble it, and give all the parts a good clean. If any line looks suspect, or has any kind of aroma I’ll replace the line.

 

[Kharnynb]

ok, so follow up, do you guys all drink daily to keep what's in the line/tap head clean?

 

[day_trippr]

lol! I drink from all six taps daily but not to keep the lines fresh
Speaking of which, EVAbarrier tubing is the bomb wrt keeping beer from staling/flattening in the lines.
HUGE difference from the standard Bevlex 200 solid PVC lines I ran for years...

Cheers!

 

[LittleRiver]

one question about kegging that always bugs me, how often do you wash out your lines?

Every time. I just incorporate cleaning the lines as part of my process of cleaning a keg:

• take the keg outside and rinse thoroughly with a nozzle on the garden hose (this blows out all the sediment)
• put PBW & ~2gal hot water in the keg, close it up
• shake then let it rest for a few minutes, repeat a couple more times
• put the keg in the keezer, hook it up, turn on the C02 for about 5sec (that's all it takes)
• drain the cleaning solution into a bucket, through the faucet

• put ~2gal hot rinse water in the keg, shake it thoroughly
• put it in the keezer, give it a little gas, drain it through the faucet

• put a cup or two of starsan in the keg, shake
• put it in the keezer, give it a little gas, drain it through the faucet

Written down, it looks like more work than it really is. It's easy.

Every few brews (3-4?) I break down the keg completely, and clean all the small parts with hot PBW before the sanitizing step.

I use a homemade PBW substitute (Oxyclean & TSP).

 

[Gduck]

ok, so follow up, do you guys all drink daily to keep what's in the line/tap head clean?

Nah, all the lines are in the freezer so stay chilled, and I’ve never had an issue with anything bad coming out. I mean it’s not weeks passing between pouring beers from them or anything, but sometimes a few days pass where I haven’t pulled anything from the taps. A lot of the bars I’ve known a)have long runs of line and b)the entire run isn’t refrigerated (usually wrapped in some insulation for the unrefrigerated portions), so it’s more likely funky things are going to happen in to those lines without regular cleaning. And sadly I’ve been to far too many bars where they didn’t keep up on cleaning, or even flushing a line that’s sat unused for a bit, and ended up with a pint of, shall we say, sub-par beverage.

 

[bracconiere]

do you guys all drink daily

LOL

 

[Kharnynb]

Nah, all the lines are in the freezer so stay chilled, and I’ve never had an issue with anything bad coming out. I mean it’s not weeks passing between pouring beers from them or anything, but sometimes a few days pass where I haven’t pulled anything from the taps. A lot of the bars I’ve known a)have long runs of line and b)the entire run isn’t refrigerated (usually wrapped in some insulation for the unrefrigerated portions), so it’s more likely funky things are going to happen in to those lines without regular cleaning. And sadly I’ve been to far too many bars where they didn’t keep up on cleaning, or even flushing a line that’s sat unused for a bit, and ended up with a pint of, shall we say, sub-par beverage.

Luckily, that would get your license pulled in very short order here....
do you clean the tap itself if you haven't used it for a few days?

 

[Gduck]

Luckily, that would get your license pulled in very short order here....
do you clean the tap itself if you haven't used it for a few days?

I wish that was enough to get places licenses pulled.

As for my taps, yeah, I have a bottle of sanitizer by them and I’ll spray them out and wipe them down after I’ve poured my last pint of the evening.