Hello and good afternoon., raining like crazy here in CA
I kegged already once (you guys hleped tremendously!) and soon to be my second round of tapped beer!
Question? Am I supposed to disassemble each keg completely as well as flush out the lines , between keg batches?
I did that when I 1st received the kegs. Took each keg apart fully and sanitized every thing with hot water and Starsan, to include include beer lines, MFL disconnects, Perlick Faucets/ Shanks assembly.
Am I supposed to do that for each time I reuse the keg with new beer?
So whats the procedure servicing schedule between kegs batches…???
probably not necessary, but I do since its pretty easy - rinse them out well, then disassemble, fill with hot pbw (or cleaner of your choice) put all the pieces inside and let soak (I usually do for longer than recommended since life gets in the way). dump, rinse, reassemble. Sanitize (assembled) just prior to refilling.
That is good advice. I have kegs with all different combos of lids, posts, longer and shorter diptubes, etc. Some things interchangeable, but not always.
I’ll hook up from my water faucet through the gas connection and flush with hot water, then add some pbw and soak, then hook up a picnic tap and flush a bit of the solution, then empty and rinse with more hot water. Been doing this for a couple years now and have yet to break them down. I have replaced my beverage tubing and picnic taps recently.
I do take them apart, rinse and then usually do a quick soak. I fill the keg with warm water and add some PBW, toss the keg parts inside. Then rinse and sanitize because I usually only wash them once they are needed. I need to get a little better about cleaning them once the keg is kicked.
I rinse with hot water as soon as it blows. I will add a little hot water and pbw. I then seal and shake and let sit for 10 minutes. Dump, rinse, and add Starsan. Run through the line until empty. Keg is purged and ready to go. I beak them down if it is an IPA or anything with additives like oak in the keg. They get an overnight soak.
I use “Marks Keg and Carboy Washer” to wash with Oxiclean then repeat with Starsan to sanitize. I only break down occasionally. I hate removing the posts. I always seem to wrap my knuckles loosing them.
My milk Stout and Porter are femrnting away… Will be tansfered into my 2 kegs in about a montb …which are almost dunzo…
Need to buy more…new not used this time
I guess it’s because I am anal retentive, but I disassemble each keg after it is empty and clean everything. It gives me a chance to examine the hidden gaskets on the dip tubes and the the poppets as well. I clean mine with a bulk tank cleaner that is used in the dairy industry. You can also use PBW but I save that for cleaning my fermenter and brewing equipment since the dairy stuff is cheaper. FYI, I do one keg at a time so I don’t run into the issue of mixing the plugs between kegs. I can usually clean a keg in about 5 minutes or so, including disassembly and reassembly.
Once the kegs are cleaned and rinsed three times, I pressurize them with a few psi of CO2 and store them until I am ready to use them (this allows me to test them to see if they hold pressure). I them mix up 5 gallons of Saniclean in the keg, roll the keg on the floor and stand it upside down for about 5-10 minutes. I also push down the beer out and gas in poppets and allow the dip tubes to fill with sanitizer. When the keg is sanitized, I either pump the sanitizer into the next keg, if I am filling multiples, or into my Rubbermaid cooler for storage. This way I can have relatively fresh sanitizer on hand for the next brew day.
You don’t have to do this as often as I do, but this way I make sure that everything is totally cleaned.
We have two of the Mark’s keg washers. Kegs are disassembled every time and stored pressurized with a bit of remaining sanitizer in them. Once they are disassembled, cleaned, sanitized, and pressurized they get a little tag that says “S+P” for sanitized and pressurized. All keg parts stay with that keg.
When I need one, I just pull one out of the “S+P” stack, pull the pin to see if it holds pressure well, dump out the remaining sanitizer, fill, and re-pressurize. If it has no pressure, I know something is off.
When we blow a keg, we rinse the line immediately with BLC or Penetrate and take the keg off. The dirty keg goes in the dirty pile, and then those are cleaned in batches as needed. Myles usually does 4-6 kegs at a time.
I disassemble and sanitize my kegs each time they blow. I let them stack up until I have 4 or 8 to clean.
I break down the first keg and rinse it, run a brush through the dip tube and then throw all the parts inside the keg and fill it with hot PBW. I set that one aside and then start on the second one. Once the second one is ready for a soak I transfer the PBW from the first keg to the second and rinse the first with hot water. The first keg gets setup upside down in a homer bucket with all it’s parts to drip out.
Repeat until all kegs are clean and draining.
Swirl some sanitizer through the first keg and it’s parts and reassemble and pressurize it. Again repeat until all the kegs are done. Then throw them in the cabinet until I need them.
Like Amanda said, if one of them isn’t pressurized when I want to use it I know there is a leak and I use a different keg and then fix the leaky.
It’s probably overkill but seems to save me time and definately saves me money on chemicals.
