How are you supposed to clean that long tube in the keg efficiently? I was going to pick up one of these in the appropriate “caliber” and think it might work. For my guns they are just awesome. The bristles are brass so softer than steel so shouldn’t scratch. Drop the weighted end down then pull. Can be soaked in PBW then rinsed, even washed in the washing machine. The front part has scrubbing ability, the bristles loosen crud, and the oversized body dries and pulls material out. Just thought of this so will go home and look at the diameter of the tube. Thoughts?
That might work. I use one of these.
I bought a nice brush, just for this purpose at Adventures In Homebrewing.
Keg Cleaning Draw Tube Brush (Nylon 1/4" x 36")
Item Number:24-4786
Thanks for the replies. Not sure how many on here have used a Boresnake, but they basically wipe the bore dry and clean with one swipe because that large fluffly body compresses and while they pull though tightly really work front to back to scrub and loosen and remove/dry. I am going to find the correct size and give it a try I think. But thanks, didn’t know those brushes were even made.
Recirc PBW with my keg washer. I break kegs down every year or so and use a brush.
Definitely soak it good before scrubbing. The dip tube brush has worked well for me.
I use a dip tube brush too. I never even thought about using a bore cleaner. The one for a .22 or a .38 might work okay but most of my keg dip tubes have a bend in them which would rule out my cleaning rods.
The brush works very well and is pretty cheap.
Paul
I disassemble and soak everything (PBW, StarSan) usually for every batch, but sometimes I’ll skip one. I never go 3 batches in the same keg without a complete disassembly.
I’m not sure if all caliber boresnakes have them, but the ones I’ve got have brass bristles. IDK if these would be an issue, but I wouldn’t use them because of this.
And don’t use them with any cleaners containing copper solvent…
No kegging yet, but I love using the boresnake on my 10/22
I should also add that I use the long handled brush from the CamelBack cleaning kit on dip tubes. Works great for my backpacking gear, why not keg parts too?
I was thinking the same thing. Great product, though. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to pick one up for my pellet rifle…
Same here. Have a long, flexible tube brush with plastic bristles that I think came out of a branded CamelBack cleaning kit. Would work well if you felt the need to scrub inside the dip tube.
So far, I’ve been happy to just recirc PBW with my keg washer.
I always just used to circulate a hot Ozyclean solution through mine.
AS SOON as a keg kicks, I run hot water through the keg and tap to rinse out yeast and tap deposits, then run star san through. When I take the kegs apart to change the seals the dip tubes are always clean. Now wait a day or two to clean out the keg like I did in my younger years, different story.
I also disassemble and clean everything after every batch; no exceptions for me. I also use the tube brush for cleaning diptubes, and I even use it on the welded spud on the keg that the post screws onto (while the diptubes are removed). I work under the premise that I don’t want to accidentally compromise a batch simply because I didn’t clean the serving vessel - this is the reason why bottling was such a PITA for me (OCD/perfectionist tendencies :D). I’m the same with my liquid lines, but there have been a couple times when folks were over, a keg kicked, and I had a backup all ready so I just moved the liquid disconnect to the new keg without cleaning the liquid line/faucet/etc. Because cleaning kegs entails a certain amount of prep/cleanup time, I wait until I have 4-8 dirty kegs to clean and do them all at once. I figure it will take me ~45 minutes to clean one keg (beginning to end), and each additional is only like 10 extra minutes per keg so I can get 5 done in about 1.5 hours (which is not too bad for my OCD/perfectionist brain :P).
Wow. The only time it’s taken me 45 minutes to clean one keg was when I took some BKF to the outside to polish them up and get off old stickers.
Yeah, I’m not the quickest - I pay too much attention to detail (mundane, unimportant details). Oh well, at least I’m confident in the cleanliness of the inside of my kegs 