Racking to just empty Keg

[mattmuir]

Hi all, any one ever just rack a new batch to a keg that just kicked? Still cold ,still full of co2. I dont want to be lazy but cleaning can be a pain some days.

 

[Xalwine]

If its the same style, I have heard of people doing that. There will be some sediment at the bottom... not reccomended, but I have heard of it.

 

[Golddiggie]

I wouldn't (and won't) do it... It doesn't take that long to clean a keg out, and I clean the lines that keg was just using at the same time. Simple PBW soak for the keg, then run it through the line, and faucet, the keg was connected to. Then some clean rinse water (after completely rinsing out the keg) followed by some StarSan solution (I use 2-4 quarts of StarSan in a keg) that's also run through the tubing. I then KNOW the keg, and tubing, is both clean and sanitized and ready for the next brew. I do try to have a keg carbonated, waiting for a spot to open up in the tap lineup. I then put another keg in the carbonation spot and put it onto gas.

I typically don't have much that the PBW needs to eat through in the kegs. They typically rinse out really clean, easily. I do the PBW solution more for the beer line cleaning. Of course, it's important to sanitize the entire set, but that's both easy and pretty fast.

This is one of the areas that I feel you shouldn't try to cut corners on. If you do, it's just a matter of time before you have a batch go nasty on you and you'll need to either strip everything apart to clean it, or toss the tubing and still break down the rest to get it all cleaned. IMO, the pain offsets the gain far too much.

 

[rawlus]

I don't think it's that big a deal to rack to a just kicked keg.... The hysteria around sanitization can get out of control. Beer in a keg versus more beer in a keg is not much different. If the original keg wasn't infected, is unlikely the next brew will get infected.

That being said, I try to clean before filling each time but there are times when I won't for whatever reason and I don't lose sleep over it.

 

[onthekeg]

I have reracked into a keg, I would swirl some hot water to get the dregs out and fill it again. I don't do it often, but I have done it in the past.

 

[mattmuir]

Thanks all. I did it once from cream ale to cream ale and never noticed any off flavors. I do clean the lines often. Guess I will try and get the wife to embrace this task... yeah right.

 

[wailingguitar]

If the beer that just kicked was clean, then it is an acceptable practice. Commercial breweries will sometimes fill brite beer tanks 3 or 4 times before breaking them down and cleaning them. I have done it with my cornies and will go 2 or 3 fills sometimes... assuming I haven't used fining agents! I don't want to stir that mess up with a fresh fill. Basically, if the beer that was in the keg in the first place was clean, you can assume that the keg is free of contaminants. Stone will eventually build up and need to be cleared away, of course.

 

[Yooper]

I guess it's "acceptable" but I still wouldn't do it. I also wouldn't eat off a dirty dish, though. Even if I just had spaghetti on the same plate yesterday, I'd still get a clean plate. Same with kegging. It takes like 5 minutes to break down and clean and sanitize a keg.

 

[dwarven_stout]

I guess it's "acceptable" but I still wouldn't do it. I also wouldn't eat off a dirty dish, though. Even if I just had spaghetti on the same plate yesterday, I'd still get a clean plate. Same with kegging. It takes like 5 minutes to break down and clean and sanitize a keg.

Well put.

(although I *do* reuse my cast iron )

 

[richbrew99]

At least rinse and star san

 

[wailingguitar]

I guess it's "acceptable" but I still wouldn't do it. I also wouldn't eat off a dirty dish, though. Even if I just had spaghetti on the same plate yesterday, I'd still get a clean plate. Same with kegging. It takes like 5 minutes to break down and clean and sanitize a keg.

That really isn't a good analogy... in the case of the keg you have an environment which is known to be safe for beer from both a microbial and O2 free point of view. The spaghetti plate, one can safely assume, has not been kept in the same conditions and is, in fact, likely to be growing something unsavory. The keg could well be considered a "clean plate" in that regard.

Like virtually every other thing I do at the home level, I take queues from what I have seen work at the commercial level. Since brite tanks/serving tanks are often given multiple fills before being broken down and cleaned, I see no reason not to take the same approach with a keg. After all; I cleaned the thing in the first place, I had it in my control the entire time, I know the beer was clean. That being said, there are things I wouldn't do; put a second fill into a keg I had fined beer in (there's gonna be a lot of gunk!), put a lighter beer in behind a darker one, etc.

Fill a keg two or three times... clean it after every single use... it really doesn't matter. The beer that ends up in the glass is the important thing.