Ball Lock Question

Brewing Processes
1

I have a couple of these in a ziplock in the garage…

Today I noticed there was some brown/black gunk all over the flare fittings. Any clue what this is?

2

Picture?

3

Sounds like microbial/bacterial/mold gunk.

4

Yeah take it apart and soak it in PBW then sanitizer.

5

I’m not so sure about the PBW and sanitizer (especially star san) idea…

I’ve got a mess of keg taps/parts/fittings, all from the website OP listed. On several of these fittings, whatever they plated/coated them with turned black. I can’t remember if it was PBW or star san that did it. The threads on one of my taps is just as black as the tap now.

I’ve also got some pin lock kegs where the plating metal has completely eroded, exposing whatever cheap pot metal they were made out of.

I’d hit them with PBW and a scrub brush, and just make sure it doesn’t sit and soak too long. Then into star san for a minute or two, then rinse really well.

6

It’s the star san that you don’t want to soak in too long.  I left a few fittings in it for a couple weeks and it removed all the plating.

7

Called Beverage Factory today and they confirmed it’s stainless which is odd. How would StarSan strip that coating off?

8

Not sure, but after the customer service mess I had with the kegs I bought from them they’re not getting another cent from me. I bought three of those 1/4" flare to commercial tap coupler things from them, two of them are corroding and I haven’t even used them yet.

9

Ask what grade stainless they used. There was a guy on here that used some stainless ball bearings to weigh down a hop bag, and those came out black at beer pH. Not all stainless is the same.

10

I believe it’s grade 104. :slight_smile:

11

100 series would be regular carbon steel and definitely not suitable for food use. I’m assuming they meant 304.

12

I just made that up trying to be funny.

13

Does anyone know of some taps that have solid SS parts, instead of just plated?

14

By taps, do you mean faucets? If yes, perlick has stainless and the more common type faucets are available in stainless.

15

Not faucets, but taps/disconnects. The plated metal has me concerned, since it’s starting to come off of most of my taps.

16

http://www.homebrewing.org/product.asp?itemid=4061&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ProductAds&gclid=CIyzt-G-9sYCFYgBaQod2fINWw

Nicer quality

17

Some less expensive ones: http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7

18

One would think the CMB branded stuff is SS, although I don’t see that on Beverage Factory’s site.

They do sell these…

http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/couplers/homebrew/BLSET-SS14BARB_Ball_lock_.25in_barb.shtml