Sanitize first-time beer lines?

[CallMeZoot]

Next week I'll be putting my first keg on tap (the beer's already in the keg secondary-ing at room temperature).

It's a brand new kegerator system, right out of the box. Is it necessary to sanitize the beer lines, or will the alcohol, C02, and relatively short time sitting in the tubes be enough to prevent anything nasty from getting in there?

If I should sanitize, how do I do this? I didn't get one of those $50 "keg cleaning systems." My (only) keg is full of beer so I can't pump sanitizer through it. (Yes, I know, I know, I should have 25 kegs, but right now I have uno).

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
chris.

(P.S. of course I DID disassemble and sanitize the hell out of my keg before I racked to it -- right now I'm just wondering about the beer line, faucet, and ball locks).

 

[cheezydemon]

It should be fine. You might run some hot water through it to get any dust or plastic taste out of it. No rinse sanitizer wouldn't hurt.

 

[Jonnio]

I would definitely do something to clean all that stuff out - My personal plan is not to spend the 50 on a cleaning kit, but to put that towards a spare keg. I am going to start by putting some oxy clean (actually sodium percarbonate, but its the same thing) in and running that through both taps, then rinsing the keg and filling it with 2 gal distilled water and Star San - I will just keep it on hand and between kegs flush it through.

I am not planning on trimming my pickups, so the first pint will be used to get the sediment out and the star san out - then I can start drinking.

 

[Sea]

ALWAYS SANITIZE EVERYTHING THAT WILL COME INTO CONTACT WITH YOUR BEER BETWEEN THE BOIL, AND THE GLASS!!!

Just mix up a bucket of sanitizer, and soak everything in it, making sure there are no air bubbles in the tubing. I use Iodophor, which is a 1-2 min sanitizer, and it's cheap, easy, and quick insurance against possible infections. Why risk it?

 

[malkore]

I just rinse my lines the first time. no issues yet.