Keg/Tap/Beer Line Sanitation/Maintenance

[daryl]

Of those of you who keg beer and tap at home....

Do you use a keg cleaner? If so, what is it and would you recommend it?

Does it double as a carboy cleaner?

How often do you clean your lines/taps?

What do you use to clean them? How do you clean them?

Thanks,
Daryl

[czubak]

I use these for line/faucet cleaning and daisy chain all my lines together so it's all done at once. Granted you have to have ball lock for this to apply. https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/ ... erpost.htm

For cleaning I use PBW or Oxyclean/TSP mixed. Recirculate it warm through the lines for 30 minutes or so. I currently use my March pump, but plan to get a submersible pump and build a keg/carboy cleaner like a marks keg washer https://www.kegwasher.com/ and use the pump for both cleaning tasks. It uses less cleaning solution that how i do it currently. Once that's done I recirculate some star san through the lines.

How often? probably not enough. Usually in an inventory lull or a few times a year. Club got in on a group buy with this beer line that is supposed to be antimicrobial. Super technical and geeky stuff. It's been over a year and I love it. It's really flexible compared to other line types I have used in the past. It's silicon based I believe. We got it through Joe, unsure he has it in stock. http://www.morebeer.com/products/ultra- ... -foot.html

Keg cleaning I am a bit lazy. Hot water blast, scrub the inside as good as I can get and rinse again. Sometimes I go on a deep cleaning, removing the poppets and soaking it all in PBW. I will also run PBW from one keg to another with a liquid to liquid jumper to ensure the "outs" get a good cleaning. Always star san before kegging.

[TappedOut]

I have a Mark's keg washer, and I like it a lot. I sometimes use it for Better Bottles and buckets. It should totally work for glass carboys as well. Although, w/ a cheap submersible pump, a tub, and some tubing you could do something like this: http://brulosophy.com/2015/10/22/quick- ... hacks-diy/. Whether DIY or from Mark's, a submersible pump is quite useful for cleaning lines. The Mark's is stupid simple, basically a plastic basin w/ some plastic to support keg/carboy/bucket, and a submersible pump blasting water up.

[TappedOut]

Forgot to mention. One of these little fittings http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Stainles ... 35a4acc0ee (ships from China) make line cleaning super easy w/ a submersible pump if you use ball-locks. Twist-on flare connectors work too, if you use those rather than barb connections.

[whitedj]

Good stuff from both of you. I generally clean lines when I deep clean the keezer... which is not enough (guessing 10 to 16 months)... i know that I have a mild infection when bottles are stored for more than a couple days. I don't notice it when I pour directly off the taps though.

[andrewmaixner]

What they said.

If you want the lines clean really fast, use lye (sold at a huge markup as BLC beer line cleaner) instead of PBW.

If you have a lot of taps you can buy a manifold with as many ball or pin liquid connects as you want to hook up to the pump. Forgot who sells them offhand.

(If anyone is building, I have 4 stainless 4inch shanks, which I want to replace with 3inch due to space issues in my build... Trade/cheep)

[Matt F]

When I have some leftover sanitizer usually when kegging, I dump the sanitizer in a keg and push it through my beer lines with CO2. Like others, I don't do this often enough. I also have the antimicrobial stuff like Chris and I have noticed the crap in the lines cleans out easily. Couldn't be as lazy with my old normal beverage tubing. The stiff glass lined tubing is great too but didn't work for me because I need flexible lines to work with my fridge door.

I have a homemade keg washer with mfl QDs for cleaning kegs. Was going to get a male connecter so I can attached two tap lines and use the pump to clean tap lines but have not yet.

[fargo41]

I have the antimicrobial stuff too and have really liked it. Joe can order more but you have to order a full box which I believe is 100 ft. I've used the Mark II keg cleaner with a carbonation cap that Tom listed and just run BLC and it cleaned them out really well. I have only done that once.

[TappedOut]

Daryl, you're welcome to borrow my keg washer to play w/ if you want (assuming I can find it). Another nice little add-on for it is a switched outlet. And as always w/ water and electricity, use a GFCI.

[whitedj]

Glass lines are nice. But there are cravasses that need to be cleaned on the connectors. So it's not entirely fool proof.

[Matt F]

Daryl, you're welcome to borrow my keg washer to play w/ if you want (assuming I can find it). Another nice little add-on for it is a switched outlet. And as always w/ water and electricity, use a GFCI.

My homemade washer runs on a remote like my pump. Remote outlets for Christmas lights will be really cheap at Menards come January.

[UndeadFred]

I've been using 3/16" polyethylene line from Menards for my beverage lines. Works pretty darn well, once you heat the ends with a heat gun to get it to fit over the barbs.

It's I think $1.50 for 10'. When I do decide to clean the lines, I'll replace them for that price. But not until after I have two or three kegs through each one..

As for keg cleaning.. I tend to over do that. I take them apart every time and wash and sanitize everything. I'm sure I'll go though extra o-rings that way but they are also pretty cheap in bulk and I'm slowly converting everything from nitrile to silicone anyway...

I was just flushing them but I had a keg that I thought I had flushed out well and somehow just a little drop of stout left over mixed with the rinse water and soured on me. It took multiple strip downs and day long soaks in Star-San to get rid of the sour... well that and I had to replace all of the o-rings...

Fred

[Eric B]

Of those of you who keg beer and tap at home....

Do you use a keg cleaner? If so, what is it and would you recommend it?

I have a home made one I use in my sink. It consists of a pond pump and a interchangeable set of PVC and fittings to make whatever contraption I need to make to clean whatever item.

Does it double as a carboy cleaner?

It cleans my SS Brewtech fermenters nicely.

How often do you clean your lines/taps?

I clean in between kegs typically. In the commercial world of beer line cleaning we do it every 2 weeks because on average it only takes 4-10 days for bacterial growth in lines.

What do you use to clean them? How do you clean them?

I use Micro-Matic Beer Line Cleaner which is a 3% Alkaline solution. Pretty mean stuff.... I do a static cleaning and let it sit in the line for 20 minutes, followed by water to rinse the line and bring back to a neutral pH. But once I get my new draft setup I will pump clean them like Chris mentioned. Similar to what we use out in the real world. But really isn't needed as much for such a short draw, just doing it for the convenience factor of cleaning all the lines at once.

Thanks,
Daryl

[whitedj]

I have a "marks keg washer 2" it was easy and I didn't have to build anything. But after using it for a couple years I'd likely build something more sturdy with a pond pump and possibly a heater or my rims tube/HLT attached.

[tony b]

Sounds like there'd be enough interest in a Tech Meeting DIY session on building one!