Keg was tapped a while ago and I left the CO2 on. Do I have to dismantle and clean the lines for the next brew?
Some do, some don’t clean at every keg blowing. How different will the new brew compared to the old? You say keg was tapped a while ago, did you mean to say it blew a while ago? If so, how long? Days, weeks, etc. Safe side would be to clean. With this, I don’t keg, just info I have gleaned from reading here on the forum
I have one of those homemade pumps for beer line cleaner (small pressure sprayer from Home Depot with a liquid-out post attached). When a keg blows, I’ll run some beer line cleaner through the line and the tap for a minute or so. I’ll leave the residual BLC in the lines until I hook up the next keg, which could be minutes if one is waiting, or a couple of weeks, depending on brewing schedule.
I’ll also break down the entire “wet side” of the system, clean the parts thoroughly, and maybe replace the lines, but I only do this maybe every year or so.
Yesterday I took apart and cleaned two beer line quick disconnects, and after I took them apart I took a photo of the sequence and position of the components. That made it much easier to reassemble the QDs.
I had used both disconnects on and off for about 15 months, and while they weren’t disgusting, they definitely benefited from cleaning. I plan to do that more often.
I aspire to clean the lines between every keg, but realistically it only happens every 5-6 kegs. My beer doesn’t tend to sit in the lines for extended periods of time, and I haven’t noticed any major issues (unless I have a beer w/strong flavors–e.g., something with major wood or spice notes, in which case I definitely clean).
Hmm…that’s actually probably a good reminder that I should clean out my lines this week!