Sanitizing corney kegs with boiling water

[JoeHoffman]

I've been doing this for a while and thought I'd share/ see if anyone else is too. When its time to keg, I simply boil a couple gallons of water. While I'm waiting for a boil, I sanitize equipment and scrub the kegs clean with a sponge and water. Poor in boiling water, close lid, shake the **** out of it, attach beer line and let steam pressure push boiling water through the system. I do this twice then allow to drain and cool with a quick rinse of the outside with cool water. No need for sanitizers, no wasted CO2 and and minimal cost. Never had a sanitary issue in ten years and kegs are amazingly clean for never having any chemical in them.


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Or just make up 2.5g of starsan mix with cool water and use that to sanitize 20 or 30 corney kegs before it's no longer viable.

Cheap, and no chance of scalding...

 

[acidrain]

Yeah, I don't get the extra effort using boiling water.
StarSan FTMFW

 

[The_Bishop]

There's the whole issue of the water cooling down to a temperature that doesn't actually sanitize anything, as well.

 

[JonM]

If that works for you, great.

I sure as $*#( wouldn't shake anything filled with boiling water. And FWIW, I've been brewing for five or six years. I still have the bottle of starsan I got with my beginner kit. In other words, Starsan is exceptionally cheap, it won't send you to the Emergency Room if you spill some on your skin, and it won't mess up the adhesive connections that hold the rubber tops and bottoms on the kegs.

I definitely would not recommend the boiling water approach to anyone else.

 

[cantrell00]

Jesus.

Tough crowd.

 

[govner1]

There's the whole issue of the water cooling down to a temperature that doesn't actually sanitize anything, as well.

^^**This plus the fact you're rinsing w/ cold tap water pretty much negates your efforts to sanitize w/ boiling water.
Cleanse w/ B-Rite or PBW & hot water soak. Rinse and then sanitize w/ StarSan. Much more effective and safer.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

If that works for you, great.

I sure as $*#( wouldn't shake anything filled with boiling water. And FWIW, I've been brewing for five or six years. I still have the bottle of starsan I got with my beginner kit. In other words, Starsan is exceptionally cheap, it won't send you to the Emergency Room if you spill some on your skin, and it won't mess up the adhesive connections that hold the rubber tops and bottoms on the kegs.

I definitely would not recommend the boiling water approach to anyone else.

I've drank diluted (1oz per 5g) Starsan before. Tastes like lemonade! Well, lemonade without lemon flavor or sugar. But yeah, it won't hurt ya.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Jesus.

Tough crowd.

Lol

 

[-CHRIS-]

I dunno, have you looked in your kegs with a bright flashlight? I always seems to find left over proteins hanging around. My process is to rinse with water, rinse with PBW and finally rinse with Star San. My time is too valuable to loose a batch that takes me 6 hours to brew for a few pennies of cleaner and sanitizer.

Chris

 

[stpug]

IMO, using boiling water and steam are excellent sanitizing techniques, particularly when it comes to killing wild/sour microbes. Boiling is a certain death for sacc, brett, pedio, lacto, etc. Heat is my "go to" method for ensuring death to wild microbes, particularly those that create biofilms meant to protect them from air and other solutions not capable of dissolving the films. I would probably follow up the boiling water with a starsan rinse to give an extra level of santization and cooling.

Granted, it's extra effort and there are some risks with shaking containers of near-boiling water inside; but there are risks with using glass carboys too.

 

[cantrell00]

Lol

Brothers are serious about brewing safety.

Work for OSHA or something?

 

[BrotherBock]

Brothers are serious about brewing safety.

Work for OSHA or something?

Yeah, maybe we should avoid the the glass vs plastic question?

 

[acidrain]

I dunno, have you looked in your kegs with a bright flashlight? I always seems to find left over proteins hanging around. My process is to rinse with water, rinse with PBW and finally rinse with Star San. My time is too valuable to loose a batch that takes me 6 hours to brew for a few pennies of cleaner and sanitizer.

Chris

I use a pressure washer with a 90 deg tip. Perfectly clean in 10 minutes, and then soak in StarSan while the brew is happening. I'm all about fast and easy. Not so much about safety.

 

[JonW]

I normally just use PBW in my keg cleaner and then rinse and hit them with StarSan. However I recently had my first infection in 3 kegs (same 15G batch), which told me that the infection started in the fermenter. With that infection, I decided to use boiling water in all 3 of those kegs. It was my first time heat sanitizing kegs in about 6 years of my brewing/kegging experience. I only consider using boiling water in the kegs for killing any possible infection issues. Otherwise, it's usually overkill.

 

[iijakii]

I normally just use PBW in my keg cleaner and then rinse and hit them with StarSan. However I recently had my first infection in 3 kegs (same 15G batch), which told me that the infection started in the fermenter. With that infection, I decided to use boiling water in all 3 of those kegs. It was my first time heat sanitizing kegs in about 6 years of my brewing/kegging experience. I only consider using boiling water in the kegs for killing any possible infection issues. Otherwise, it's usually overkill.

Infection got worse in the fridge? Or did you 'cellar' them a bit?

 

[JonW]

Infection got worse in the fridge? Or did you 'cellar' them a bit?

Beer was in primary fermenter for about 3 weeks. I kegged it and had it sitting at ambient temp for about 2 weeks prior to doing a dry hop. When I went to dry hop it, all 3 kegs had a pellicle type growth floating on the top of the beer in the kegs. Since all 3 kegs were exactly the same, I concluded that the infection started in the fermenter.

 

[The_Bishop]

Do you tear down your kegs every time you clean them? That could be an issue, too.

 

[JonW]

No, I don't tear my kegs down every time I clean them. I go from having a clean beer in them to when they're empty, they are still sealed and pressurized with CO2 - thus inhibiting any oxygen and bacteria growth. I then open them on cleaning day and run them on my keg cleaner with PBW that also flows through both dip tubes. They get rinsed and then hit with StarSan and stored with a bit of StarSan in them. I've never had a keg infection and even with the 3 kegs of infected beer, I still never had a keg infection, I had a fermenter infection (which was likely from the re-used yeast on that batch).

 

[JoeHoffman]

If that works for you, great.

I sure as $*#( wouldn't shake anything filled with boiling water. And FWIW, I've been brewing for five or six years. I still have the bottle of starsan I got with my beginner kit. In other words, Starsan is exceptionally cheap, it won't send you to the Emergency Room if you spill some on your skin, and it won't mess up the adhesive connections that hold the rubber tops and bottoms on the kegs.

I definitely would not recommend the boiling water approach to anyone else.

Five or six years and still the same bottle of sanitizer? You ether don't brew much or need to write the Vatican about the endless well of sanitizer. I brew three times a month and go through lots of sanitizer even with the boiling water method.


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[JonM]

I brew a ton, I make the Starsan solution with distilled water so it lasts a long time, and it was a big bottle of concentrate. It's almost gone. But not quite.

 

[JoeHoffman]

^^**This plus the fact you're rinsing w/ cold tap water pretty much negates your efforts to sanitize w/ boiling water.
Cleanse w/ B-Rite or PBW & hot water soak. Rinse and then sanitize w/ StarSan. Much more effective and safer.

Think you miss understand me, after the boiling water is pored out I rinse the outside (not the inside) with cold water which quickly cools the keg and keeps it completely sterile. Plus you all seem to be forgetting that with the steam pressure you are able to run sterilizing liquid through the dip tube and beer lines without wasting co2 or sanitizer. A pretty big plus for 15 min of work. Not trying to sell you all on it but it seems like people aren't seeing the simplicity and efficiency of it all. Also, If the keg lids offered any danger of opening and burning you with boiling water then you shouldn't be using them in the first place.


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

I only take the keg completely apart every other time and I have been fine. BUT...I use star san just saying.

 

[JonW]

When I hit my clean kegs with StarSan, I use a special hose that shoots it into the keg via both QD's on top. I made a Y cable that has a bev QD at the bottom of the Y and both a bev and gas QD on the other connections. I keep a keg full of mixed StarSan and use that to feed the new clean kegs. This way I'm sure the StarSan hits everything, including the insides of the dip tubes. After adding the StarSan, I seal the kegs with CO2, shake them up and put them on a shelf in the garage. When I need a clean keg, I shake it again to re-coat the inside and then dump the StarSan out. I also have a fertilizer sprayer wand with a bev disconnect on it that I attach to my StarSan keg and use that to spray down the fermenters and other equipment. It works much better than a simple spray bottle.

 

[a1amberrenae]

Infection got worse in the fridge? Or did you 'cellar' them a bit?

I've had some that only seems to sour once cold. Sits several weeks and I drink off of it, zero issues. Put in the fridge and it's done. Know something here?

 

[mashpaddled]

In addition to the safety concerns above heat generally isn't used on keg systems (except sanke kegs which are different) because the equipment isn't built for it. The QDs, keg hoses and gaskets aren't designed for high temperatures. You may not have had any issues.

Are you running any kind of cleaner to address beerstone?