15 replies to this topic

[CaptRon]

What my process is with my cornies is that after it is empty, I rinse it out with hot water to get all the sediment out of the bottom, then soak it with hot water and PBW for a couple of hours. I also bleed a little of the hot PBW through the picnic tap and tubing to make sure the old beer is all cleaned out. I think that helps with build up in the tap. Next, I rinse thoroughly to get rid of all the PBW, then put some iodophor/water in it - Just like 2 gallons most. Run some of that through the tube/tap, and shake it around every so often to make sure the whole thing is sanitized.So at lunch today, I did everything up to the point of the PBW/hot water to let it soak while I am at work today. But I was wondering if all of this is necessary between each brew, or could I realistically rack other beer on top of the sediment at the bottom - do this a couple of times before doing this big time cleaning that I'm going through now.

[MakeMeHoppy]

I rinse mine out as soon as they are empty to get rid of the sediment. I then use a plastic squeeze bottle that came with my kegerator and flush the picnic tap and beer out tube with water. I then flush the air in with water and store the keg upside down so it will dry.On kegging day I use the same bottle to flush the tubes with idophor and fill with about 1/2 gallon. I put the sanitized lid on and shake around to coat the inside of the keg. I shake every couple of minutes while setting up for the transfer. Rinsing right away keeps the inside nice and clean so a simple sanitizing process is all that is needed.

[BrewerGeorge]

I won't say I have never put a fresh beer into a kicked keg, but less than a handful of times. Those times it was exactly the same beer and I never opened the keg between fills. If you're going to open it, I think you have to sanitize it, and to properly sanitize it means it must be clean.I typically do the Oxy soak including breaking down the posts, rinse, iodophor pushed out with CO2 and filled with beer pushed by CO2. Ultimately, I just don't want to risk a good beer on something so simple.

[djinkc]

I used to clean mine with multiple hot water rinses at 140df with high pressure (hose hooked to the faucet). After a while I started to notice a beerstone buildup. That was a pain to get rid of. Now they get a light scrubbing before final rinses and sanitation. No beerstone buildup since I started that routine. It doesn't take that long, 10 sometimes 15 minutes. I'm not convinced that an oxy/PBW soak is necessary everytime - sure doesn't hurt anything though.

Edited by dj in kc, 09 June 2010 - 02:20 PM.

[CaptRon]

I used to clean mine with multiple hot water rinses at 140df with high pressure (hose hooked to the faucet). After a while I started to notice a beerstone buildup. That was a pain to get rid of. Now they get a light scrubbing before final rinses and sanitation. No beerstone buildup since I started that routine. It doesn't take that long, 10 sometimes 15 minutes. I'm not convinced that an oxy/PBW soak is necessary everytime - sure doesn't hurt anything though.

Does PBW eat through the beerstone?

[SchwanzBrewer]

What is this squeeze bottle thing that you use to clean the picnic tap? I have only kegged three beers and I was contemplating how to clean the picnic taps. I was going to fill a keg with oxyclean, put it on gas, and then push the old beer out and run a bunch through. Then repeat with a starsan solution.I hate to waste gas though.Cheers,Rich

[Big Nake]

Oh wow, I thought I was lazy because I didn't break down my entire keg each time like I have heard of some people doing. Yikes. I have never racked a new beer on top of an old, burnt-out keg without cleaning and sanitizing it. When a keg kicks, it gets rinsed out with hot water, then soaks with hot water + Easy Clean (an LD Carlson cleanser) for an hour or so. The dip tube gets filled too. Then it gets emptied & rinsed and filled with a Starsan solution and then refilled. I just put the new 4-tap system up on my back wall in March and I don't want the lines getting funky so every once in awhile (I've done it twice), I will take the keg filled with cleanser and run about 1½ gallons of that through each of my 4 lines and then do the same thing with the Starsan. If I do that every 2-3 months, I feel like the lines and faucets will stay pretty good. Cheers.

[BlKtRe]

Get a pile of 6-8 empty kegs, rinse, fire up the keg washer with PBW, go to town. Since the keg washer has ball lock connectors I dont tear down but once per year. Then at kegging time, I fill keg washer w/Starsan and sanitize.

[MakeMeHoppy]

What is this squeeze bottle thing that you use to clean the picnic tap? I have only kegged three beers and I was contemplating how to clean the picnic taps. I was going to fill a keg with oxyclean, put it on gas, and then push the old beer out and run a bunch through. Then repeat with a starsan solution.I hate to waste gas though.Cheers,Rich

My linkThis is as close as I can find now to what I have. Basically it is a 1 qt plastic squeeze bottle with a vent hole. The screw on lid has a fitting for a line hose. You can place this hose into the faucet (regular beer faucet on my kegerator but works with picnic taps) and I just bought some extra tubing and a gas in beer out connector. So I can use the plain tubing to flush the picnic tap and beer tube as the same time OR use the beer out fitting if I don't have a tap connected to the keg at the time. I use the gas connector to flush that connector because I don't break down the posts very often.

[Deerslyr]

I rinse out with a high pressure hose to get all the sediment out. Then I fill it with hot water and oxy clean and pressurize it. Shake it around a bit and then hook it up to the system and run it through the diptube and out the tap until empty. Rinse the keg out with water and then fill it up with sanitizer. then go back to the tap, hook it up and run it until I'm confident the Oxy is out, dump that and then run it through and fill up another empty keg with the sanitizer. Every few brews I will break down the tap and give it a soak in Oxy and then sanitizer.Oh, not that it makes a huge difference, but I use StarSan.

[Big Nake]

FWIW, I often have a conversation with people (these are ordinarily women for some reason) who assume that all tap beer is nasty. They tell me that the worst hangover they've ever had was with "keg beer" and that it must be that the draft lines are dirty, etc. I know I'm off-topic here, but because of this, I try to keep my lines and faucets as clean as possible.. as well as my kegs. YMMV.

[CaptRon]

Even though I mentioned it, I'm not really going to rack my brew in to keg that still has the crap at the bottom. I'll always clean it first. I was just curious.I think I'll use Deerslr's method of using an empty keg to hold my sanitizer instead of just dumping it out. I have 7 more kegs to clean right meow. I might try and keg my overly hopped creamish belgian type ale tonight too while I'm at it.

[gnef]

I usually wait a while until I have motivation to clean the keg - usually when I need to use it next. I will rinse out as much as I can with hot water. Anything that I can't get out with hot water will get scrubbed with BKF. I can't recall anything that BKF couldn't get off. If there is a lot that doesn't come off the keg with a rinse, then I use PBW, but this has only had to be done on just acquired kegs that I need to recondition fully, and that is when I replace the o-rings and poppets if they are leaking.I have to admit though, I don't clean out my beverage lines very often at all. I think in the past few years, only a couple of times total. Same goes for my faucets, which I found don't really need a cleaning - they are all forward seal faucets except for the stout faucet. I also recently upgraded all my shanks to stainless, so I don't have to worry about that corrosion either. I cleaned the faucets recently, and they were still shiny and smooth, even after years of operation with little care. I am sold on forward-seal faucets.I do keep a keg devoted to star san though, and it proves very convenient when sanitizing kegs. I just use a jumper line in and out, so I can sanitize the dip tubes, and it is very easy to transfer it to buckets or anything else I want sanitized.

[Spoon]

I use jumpers too and flush hot Oxy wash and starsan from keg to keg. The picnic tap gets a soak in Oxy and a SS soak as well with an inspection scrub if required.

[Big Nake]

I have to admit though, I don't clean out my beverage lines very often at all. I think in the past few years, only a couple of times total. Same goes for my faucets, which I found don't really need a cleaning - they are all forward seal faucets except for the stout faucet.

I will also admit that I have been bad about this from time to time, which is why I'm trying to do better now that all of my equipment is new. When I broke down my 2-tap tower in March, the lines that I had been using were funky. Both of my forward seal faucets (Ventmatic Ultraflo) had sticky beer deposits in them... I was quite repulsed & a little embarrassed by it. It seems like an occasional flush with hot water & the cleaner of choice followed by another flush of the sanitizer of your choice would be enough to keep things clean.

[gnef]

Hmmmmm, where were the deposits? I sometimes get some deposits on the removable spout section, but those are pretty easy to clean (I do clean those more often since it is easier to access), but when I broke down the faucets themselves and took them apart, they were amazingly clean for me, even after years of use - the shuttle and internal beer paths were quite clean. I still soaked them in BLC then star san, and ran BLC then star san through the lines that one time, but I was quite impressed with the forward seal faucets - at that time, I had the VM ultraflo, as well as perlick 425ss. I now also have the perlick 525ss perl on my secondary kegerator, and will keep an eye on them every now and then. I also plan on upgrading the shanks on the secondary kegerator to all stainless.