Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I just finished my first two kegs this weekend. Do I just slosh cleaning and sanitizing solutions, drain and store under pressure or do I need to do a complete disassembly and clean everything?

depends on how worried you are about stuff being clean, i usually clean maybe run wom snatizer through then store dry, so the next time i need it i just sanitize and go. Also as long as its under pressure you can wait to clean it up.

I completely disassemble my kegs every time they get emptied. I follow the procedure described as "cleaning method one" and pictured in the following links.

http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/in ... Kegs-Maint
http://www.bodensatz.com/gallery2/main. ... temId=6447

I typically use a half scoop of Oxyclean and let the keg soak upside down overnight. After a thorough rinse with hot water, I reassemble everything, spray the interior and dip tube with sanitizer, install the lid, and pressurize. If it is holding pressure, I leave it that way. When it's time to fill, I just rack the beer in with no additional prep.

It looks like a lot of work, but I have found this to be the quickest and easiest way for me to clean kegs and ensure there isn't any hidden gunk I missed with a scrubbie.

If I have a beer lined up in the next couple of weeks, I'll just do a good rinse and clean my lines. If I have nothing on the horizon, I do what Lee mentioned and do a complete breakdown. It seems to work well for me. 

On Mar 11, 2012, at 11:30 PM, DrPaulsen <brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org (brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

I completely disassemble my kegs every time they get emptied. I follow the procedure described as "cleaning method one" and pictured in the following links.

http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Soda-Kegs-Maint
http://www.bodensatz.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=6447

I typically use a half scoop of Oxyclean and let the keg soak upside down overnight. After a thorough rinse with hot water, I reassemble everything, spray the interior and dip tube with sanitizer, install the lid, and pressurize. If it is holding pressure, I leave it that way. When it's time to fill, I just rack the beer in with no additional prep.

It looks like a lot of work, but I have found this to be the quickest and easiest way for me to clean kegs and ensure there isn't any hidden gunk I missed with a scrubbie.

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

I will probably fall into the minority here. I typically flush the keg with warm water/PBW mix after emptying and then leave a little in it and store under pressure. Then when I ready to fill it, I open it up and inspect. This is where i will use a brush if I need to or just give a good rinse if the keg is clean. I then put about a gallon of sanitizer in, seal and pressurize to check for leaks (StarSan bubbles nicely, making it easy to locate a leak) I then drain using the pressure and a jumper tube to another keg. This sanitizes the dip tube and poppets. I rarely, maybe every 4-5 brews, take the valves off and clean them really well. This process serves me well, as I'm usually kegging multiple brews at once. and it get's a continuous process going. Obviously, if a keg is in real bad shape, lots of crud in the bottom, or has a sticky poppet, I tear it down and do a more involved cleaning.

I usually don't have much storage time between when I empty a keg and when I need the next one (most often less than 2 weeks). I leave the keg dirty and under pressure until I need it. On fill day I release the pressure, open it up, and take it apart. I don't find taking the kegs apart to be very painful so I do it each time between fills. I have a long brush for cleaning out the long beer out dip tube. That thing usually has crude on the brush even after I push water through it. I rinse out the keg with a jet bottle washer and fill with some hot water. It is usually really clean after the jet bottle washer. I scrub with a brush and with a scrubbie on any stuff remaining after the brush. Unless it still looks dirty I fill it with star san. I spray the keg parts with star san and reassemble. I shake the keg around to get everything wet or let sit a couple minutes upside down and upright to cover it all. Been kegging fo nearly 10 years and never had any infections. If a keg is really dirty or has sat too long, I soak it in PBW or Oxiclean.

I also usually have one 5 gallon keg always clean and ready to go as I store 5 gallons of Star San in it. You can re-use star san until its PH gets out of wack. You can tell when this happens as it gets cloudy. I have re-used a batch of star san for up to 6 months before.

i also reuse star san and if your super parinoid get some ph strips, or ph meter.as long as it is around 3 or lower i think, its fine. i store mine in a bottling bucket, i don't use any more. with the lid on.

Wow, thanks for all the replies and quick. This time I'll disassemble it as my next brews are 5-6 weeks out better planning next time

A few guys have keg washers too. I have a pump I could use for one but haven't thrown it together yet. I may have to put one of these together some time.
http://www.crbeernuts.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1505