Kegging equipment

[JONNYROTTEN]

I have to disagree with johnny rotten on the use of shankes over corneys. 1 it makes no difference what they were intended to be used for they are both vessels disigned to hold liquid under pressure.

I'm no physicist but it makes a difference. I used to fight with line balancing like endless other people running ridiculous 12 ft lines and finally gave up. Now I run 4 ft lines without issue. Your never going to find a corny serving well with short lines like that so somehow somewhere it makes a difference. Every kegerator sold comes with 4 or 5 ft lines for a reason, they work with sankes that kegerators are designed for to the masses and not home brewers. If everyone that bought a kegerator had to fight with those short lines they would change them but don't for a reason. They work. You also don't need to worry about orings and hunting down leaks that again there are endless threads about. Theres also the fact that every brewery everywhere and billion dollar companies with endless R&D use sankes. If corneys were better they would use them. Theres also the question of why pepsi/coke ETC used cornys over sankes. I'm sure they did endless tests and found cornys served better with the high carb level of soda or they would have just used sankes.

At the end of the day we all put a lot of time effort and money into brewing and the very last thing before drinking it is serving it. I've found sankes to serve better with zero headaches. To each there own.
Cheers

BTW your kegs have so much bling they should be in a rap video..nice job

 

[newtobrew1981]

Ty. I'm not anti sanke. I just like the ease of corney kegs. At the end of the day we are all drinking beer. Cheers

 

[augiedoggy]

No naysaying here, I'm just curious how people were cleaning them at home is all as ive heard others who tried them post they are not as freindly to use for homebrewing in other threads.... I dont have the means to caustic cleaners ,acids or use a pressurewasher indoors during the winter (thats how I read some cleaned them in the past.) and I switched from carboys to conicals to get away from dealing with trying to clean a large vessel through a small opening but it makes sense that additional hardware like cip cleaners (carboy cleaners) would work if one removed the spear each time.
Honestly it would be something I would consider but I have dozens of cornies and even a number of 10 gallon cornies I dont use much now because I like being able to cram 3 5 gallon cornies in my kegerator and have 3 styles on tap... 11ft lines vs 4ft aside but that is a compelling reason.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

No naysaying here, I'm just curious how people were cleaning them at home is all as ive heard others who tried them post they are not as freindly to use for homebrewing in other threads.... I dont have the means to caustic cleaners ,acids or use a pressurewasher indoors during the winter (thats how I read some cleaned them in the past.) and I switched from carboys to conicals to get away from dealing with trying to clean a large vessel through a small opening but it makes sense that additional hardware like cip cleaners (carboy cleaners) would work if one removed the spear each time.
Honestly it would be something I would consider but I have dozens of cornies and even a number of 10 gallon cornies I dont use much now because I like being able to cram 3 5 gallon cornies in my kegerator and have 3 styles on tap... 11ft lines vs 4ft aside but that is a compelling reason.

I don't know about cleaning a ton of them for a Nano brewery but for homebrewing and just a few kegs believe me when I tell ya that Oxyclean and nothing else works awesome. 5 years with the same kegs and I've never stuck a brush or anything else in them and they're nice and shiny clean inside. They never leak so if you forget about them after kicking a keg they don't get funky inside. A simple rinse is all they need

 

[wilserbrewer]

I often wonder how many corny keg users are actually reaching inside their kegs and scrubbing them out, I would think most are soaking with a cleaner as mentioned above vs actual hand washing. Just cause you can doesn’t mean that most do...

 

[day_trippr]

I have, mostly on "new to me" kegs. I'm 6'5" and lanky, but there are corny keg brushes on the market for stubby or broad folks

Cheers!

 

[augiedoggy]

I do I can barely get my arm into them but usually try to wipe them out with a sponge if they've been sitting awhile it takes some scrubbing to get the krausen ring out of the inside

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I do I can barely get my arm into them but usually try to wipe them out with a sponge if they've been sitting awhile it takes some scrubbing to get the krausen ring out of the inside

So you ferment in the kegs?
I always wonder how that works. How do people ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon keg?

 

[newtobrew1981]

I do as well I'm very careful when it comes to cleanliness

 

[Nagorg]

I often wonder how many corny keg users are actually reaching inside their kegs and scrubbing them out, I would think most are soaking with a cleaner as mentioned above vs actual hand washing. Just cause you can doesn’t mean that most do...

I do this...

 

[mj1angier]

I scrub new to me used kegs the first time I clean them- also replace all the O rings. After that, when one kicks, I pop the top that day or the next, rinse with hot tap water, then fill with hot homemade PBW for an overnight soak. Next day dump, rinse twice, fill with StarSani for at least a day before pushing into the next keg. Leave it pressurized till time to fill.

If a new from factory I just do the StarSani

 

[augiedoggy]

So you ferment in the kegs?
I always wonder how that works. How do people ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon keg?

Ok bad choice of words.
Not necessarily ferment in them but sometimes I will let my beer dry out in my kegs if I keg them before they hit final gravity. (if you secondary in them you dont need the headspace.) other times my beers might sit for a while and when I crack open the kegs they sometimes have what looks like a krausen ring on the sides..Not always. I usually leave my kegs sit sealed until I need to use them at which time I open and clean them right before I fill them. They certainly dont just rinse clean. I wipe them out, put a gallon of starsan or two in them and shake them up and pressurize... dispense starsan out of both poppets and then dump. its then ready to go... never had an infection from doing this in 5 years