Lines and Disconnect Cleaning

Can anyone share best practices on cleaning (initial and ongoing) beer/gas lines, and disconnects?

i run a 1/4 5g keg of the no rinse cleaner and hot water through my tap system every couple months, or more frequently if no beer on tap (that almost never happens  ;D ), then a cycle of starsan.

for kegs and disconnects, they get the no rinse cleaner, starsan, all run through and then usually beer put right back in. i periodically take kegs apart and and clean everything including dip tube thoroughly and finish with starsan. also inspect gaskets and add a little lube as needed.

for me the key is keeping them in use with uninfected beer, immediately cleaned, and prepped for next beer.

I built one of these. Tap Line Cleaner -    BrewGeeks

Nifty

I run sanitizer through my disconnects and lines.

I also disassemble the disconnects periodically and soak them.  Be careful, as there is a small o-ring in there that can get lost.

+1, greatest little tool I have built as well, makes cleaning and sanitizing a real breeze!

When the keg runs out of beer, we run Beer Line Cleaner though the line with one of the things that Steve linked. I just keep it full of BLC so we don’t have to mix chemicals while drinking.

The vinyl lines were replaced after 10 months with barrier lines. I likely won’t replace the barrier lines every year.

The only gas-side cleaning I do is to spritz some Star-San on the gas post & QD before I connect them. Same process with the beer-side.

The disconnects (gas and beer) are disassembled and soaked in Star-San if they begin to get buildup on them (every 2-3 kegs or so).

Twice a year I run BLC through the lines with Steve’s gadget. My regular procedure after emptying a keg is to rinse the keg thoroughly, add ~ a quart of near boiling water to the corny and pump it through the tap (breaks up sticky deposits in the diptube and tap pretty effectively), followed by starsan through the tap.

I hate to say “me too”, but I built one of these last year, makes everything so much easier.  Little bit of BLC and hot water followed by a hot water rinse and then star san.