Line cleaning kits.

[nick samson]

I'm relatively new to kegging, and haven't used line cleaner yet. Typically I clean the keg the day it kicks. I rinse it with hot water once or twice, put a gallon of oxyclean in it and agitate it a few times over the course of an hour or so, pressurize the keg and push the oxiclean thru the faucet, rinse the keg with hot water and push a small amount of hot water thru the line, and finally put a cup of starsan into the keg, agitate that and force the starsan thru the line to sanitize it.

I noticed a tan film in the line so I picked up some 5star LLC. I was going to put a small amount of the LLC into the keg and push that thru the line in the same fashion as above until a friend mentioned that he thought I was wasting a lot of CO2 and should get a lime cleaning kit with a pump. Is he correct? If so, is there a particular brand of pump I should steer towards. Online reviews of the many pumps all seem to run the spectrum from not delivering enough pressure to that particular being the best invention ever. While we are at it, am I wasting too mich CO2 cleaning the keg as I do?

 

[day_trippr]

You're repeatedly filling a virtually empty keg with enough CO2 to push very small amounts of fluid.
On the whole I'd agree with your friend.
There are modestly priced alternative solutions to pushing small volumes of solutions:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/diy-beer-line-cleaner.226497/

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

If you check out my posts in this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/automated-beer-line-cleaning.647436/

You can see how I do it, including the particular pump and fittings and so on. Here's a pic showing it, which allows me to daisy chain the lines for 5 faucets together and clean them all at the same time:

 

[SEndorf]

I wash the keg out with hot water, add a "small" amount of PBW ( your not removing crud; just residual) , fill to the top and let sit overnight.
The next day fill half way with hot water, affix lid and shake. I do this 4 times to rid the PBW. Turn upside down to dry and prevent standing water during storage.
To clean the lines I use PBW with an inexpensive pond pump. You don't need or want a great deal of pressure; just a constant flow.
Then repeat with starsan.
Don't forget to remove your taps and ball locks to clean separately.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I use Beer Line Cleaner at 140F pumped through my taps and beer lines about 4 times a year. In between kegs I just use OxyClean at 140F. The key thing to remember is clean taps, lines and kegs as soon as possible while the beer in them is still wet.

 

[Veets]

You've got the right advice in the replies above.
I tried the DIY hand pump type, and ended up abandoning it. Bought a $3 mini pump on ebay instead - same idea as a pond pump. I hooked the outlet of that pump with some small tubing to one the of "carb cap" ball lock heads that has the little liquid post in it. That way, I just use the same ball lock connector that was on the keg, and snap it onto the pump setup.

I found that recirculating the beer line cleaner through the line and tap cleaned out more residue and was tons easier than pumping cleaner through by hand. I put my little pump into a 2-quart tupperware container, and then place it under the faucet. First I'll recirculate some warm water for a minute, and dump it out, just to get the residual beer out. Then one quart of hot/warm water with 1/2 oz of the beer line cleaner, and let it recirculate for 10-15 minutes. It's satisfying to see the cleaning liquid turn yellow from the beer stone or whatever residual is coming off the lines after I already flushed with water. If I'm hooking up a keg right away, I'll flush it a couple more times with clear water, but if the keg is coming later I'll turn off the faucet and let the cleaner sit in the line to keep things sanitized.

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

If you are getting the keg ready for storage there is no need to use CO2. If you have an air compressor you can do the same thing. Use the CO2 when you are kegging. You can put together a pump based line cleaner pretty easily using one of the diaphragm pumps used for quick carbonators. I have an extra keg that I put oxi-clean in, pressurize it from my compressor and push it through the lines. It works great. I also have used my quick carbonator to cycle cleaner through kegs and hoses. It just takes a little but of plumbing.

 

[nick samson]

I am amazed and appreciative of not only the knowledge/ingenuity everyone has displayed but also your eagerness to help. I only posted the question a couple hours ago and I already have my plan. Thanks everyone.

Sounds like I need to ditch the pre-fab line cleaner kits and go the pond or mini-pump route for circulating my cleaners. Thanks again.

 

[gnef]

If you already have a pump for brewing, you can use that. I use my Chugger mini max pump.

My setup for cleaning the lines is to use a 2.5 gallon pot with 1/2" valve, heating Penetrate (2x concentrate of BLC) from a camp stove to about 130F. I go from the pot to the pump, and from there into one of my faucets (I have 14, so I do two sets of cleaning in total), inside the walk-in, I have the line from that faucet going to a manifold, and the output of that manifold going to 6 other lines. Those faucets are open with the growler filler (yes, I bought enough of them) to go back to the pot of Penetrate.

I leave it at 130F for about 15-20 minutes recirculating using the chugger pump at 130F. This is about 10 degrees under the limit of my tubing, bev seal ultra 235.

Now, this is quite an operation for me, and I don't do it nearly often enough (about 2 years ago was the last time, I should really do it annually).

It does work quite well, and if you have a brewing pump, I'd definitely use that along with a camping stove to recirculate a caustic cleaner through the lines and faucets.