Kegerator infection - how to fix it?

[haeffnkr]

Hi,
I long story short I have been chasing a few lacto/vinegary bugs in my brewery.
I stopped grinding where I brew and put a starsan soaked towel of my chilled kettle and that has stopped my infection on the fermenter side.
Beer tastes perfect going into the kegs now.

I have dissambled all my kegs cleaned and soaked in pbw/vinegar-bleach/starsan and that seemed to fix that.

I have made 2 10 gallon batches of light american lager, split into 4 kegs.
I kept 2 kegs and my dad got the other 2, each from a different batch.
His beer/kegerator has no lactor/wang/vinegary off flavor and mine has a very slight one, in both kegs on separate taps, the off flavor developed in about a week on both kegs.

I have a 6 tap kegerator with bev seal ultra lines, perlick faucets.
I usaually clean the lines with PBW that I put in a clean keg and push through the lines then flush with starsan and usually let that sit in the lines for a day or 2 while the keg force carbs.

I have never in 2 years pulled apart the perlicks or or connectors to clean them. I guess that foolish?
What do others do to maintain the kegerator lines/faucets?

Can I cut off the connections and clean and soak all the hoses and fittings then ressamble the bev seal?
Or replace all gas and liquid lines and fittings or ?

thanks for your help
Kevin

 

[dk21]

Maybe try replacing the gas lines. I've heard of situations where beer has backed up into the gas lines which will eventually cause problems. Also, maybe soak your faucets if you've never removed them, though that's not a likely cause. Also, do you have a check valve before your regulator? If beer got in the regulator or co2 tank, that could cause problems as well.

Good luck. This sounds really frustrating. Since it sounds like you're keeping your liquid side clean, start work on the gas side. Not sure what else it could be.

 

[haeffnkr]

Maybe try replacing the gas lines. I've heard of situations where beer has backed up into the gas lines which will eventually cause problems. Also, maybe soak your faucets if you've never removed them, though that's not a likely cause. Also, do you have a check valve before your regulator? If beer got in the regulator or co2 tank, that could cause problems as well.

Good luck. This sounds really frustrating. Since it sounds like you're keeping your liquid side clean, start work on the gas side. Not sure what else it could be.

I forgot to mention that but yes that might be a problem.

I have 2 secondary regulators and the one I keep at 30psi for force carbing some how got some beer up in the regulator a while back.. I think my tank ran out and the keg pushed up the beer in the gas line... anyway.

Do I need to try and clean the regulator also?

What about the faucets?
Does anyone clean them regularily?
Replace the bev seal lines?
Redo the connections to the barbed disconnects and the shank ends?

thanks Kevin

 

[dk21]

That's almost certainly your problem. I'm not sure if you can clean a regulator out or not. Regardless, whether you clean it, or replace it, make sure there's a check valve so it doesn't happen again. Not sure if it would've made it in the co2 tank or not. Make sure to clean or replace the gas lines in question.

You should be OK running PBW through the liquid side, rinsing, then sanitizing. BLC or LLC may be better choices since they're caustics.

 

[Hoppity]

Try rigging a picnic tap on a fresh pour line. It will confirm it is not on your serve side. Sounds like gas side as others suggest.

 

[haeffnkr]

Ok
Makes sense to attach the co2 side, thanks.

How do I clean/boil/sanitize the regulators?
Pressure cook/autoclave? soak in bleach?

thanks Kevin

 

[Spellman]

Kevin, sorry to see you are still having issues. I had that happen once with my gas lines and I was pretty sure it caused a couple of my problems. The beer didn't go all the way to the regulator luckily and I just hooked up the gas lines to my pump sprayer line sanitizer and ran starsan through them followed by hanging them to dry which seemed to work well. To check the regulators just take a large wrench to the bonnet to take them apart.

On the other side of things, I have recently started to boil a few gallons of water then I drain that to my sanke fermentors, seal it up, and let it sit while I mash and cook anything inside. Then I drain and put some starsan in there. After fermentation I have been doing a closed transfer to my corny kegs with co2 as I had read somewhere that any o2 can help allow acetobacter to gain a foothold. It has been working well so far. I encourage you to try that sanke tc kit again, it works awesome. Oh and for cleaning I found a pressure washer that just attaches to the garden hose and blast out what I can. I took a carboy brush and made an extra bend so that it reaches the sides. It's wonderful to be making good beer again!