I would never describe a piece of cleaning equipment as sexy. Until today. I’ve always hated cleaning these damn taps, and to be fair I still do… but now a little less. Four lines at once? No problem! Now to decide if I’m mounting it externally or internally.
Killer JT!
And by the way. That is one sexy piece of brewing equipment. Now if you could just program it to clean by itself.
Now how did you fashion that sexy beast? I’d love to clean my 3 lines at once, always wondered how I could, guess I could hook an immersion pump up in a bucket and hook a silicone hose up to my faucet like you did there. Wonder if that’d be bad for the pump. It’s a pond pump…
I’m using a pump in the bucket too, it shouldn’t hurt it one bit - as long as you are restricting the outflow and not the inflow. The lines you see coming from my taps simply dump right back into the bucket. I didn’t make it, but for $60 this stainless manifold is a steal - especially considering the time savings. I just specified in the order notes that I wanted a 1/2" barb inlet and four 1/4" male flare outlets.
Sean contacted me right away and confirmed the layout. They have them made in Texas I believe. I ordered on Nov 28 and it shipped on December 5.
http://wholesalebeerparts.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=895
Damn, I like it.
Ritebrew sells a similar setup with ball lock posts.
As I was using mine today I thought, the only thing that could make this better would be ball lock posts. [emoji3]
I do like that one I purchased is stainless with welded on fittings and has a large inlet for pushing cleaner through multiple lines. I went with an external mount so it pretty much matches the rest of the hardware. No regrets on this purchase!
Looks good
That looks awesome.
I settled for some of those ball lock couplers from Brew Hardware and chain all the taps together and cycle the cleaner through using a pond pump. I got enough to do all six of my taps at once.
What capacity pump are you using to recirculate the cleaner? I set a system up today with a 290 gph pump and it just doesn’t seem like it is powerful enough.
How many lines are you cleaning at once? I have a 120gph pump and it is pretty weak on one line. Going to upgrade soon.
3 lines. I just noticed a poppet problem with my setup, though, so that could have accounted for the low flow rate. I’ll repair, repeat, and report.
Fixed the poppet. Still pretty weak flow, regardless of all 3 taps open or just one at a time. I’ve got a 600 gph pump coming for a DIY keg/carboy washer, it might just have to pull double duty with the cleanup chores.
Firstly… This is AWESOME! Nice job thinking outside the box.
Second, and for anyone else reading… Has anyone tried a similar setup with a keg attached? My idea is to pump out of my bubket onto the the front of an intertap faucet (ball lock connection for the win…) I would then remove the kegs ball lock gas in and replace it with a gas in connection connected to some silicone tubing and run it back into the bucket. I figure it would be an ok way to run run a CIP between kegs. Obviously I would do a full cleaning of the keg and lines periodically. I’m just being lazy and have the parts so I’m wondering if it will work?
I am kegging my first beer next week (well second beer first kegging). I have no idea how I clean the line. I have one keg and one picnic dispenser. If the keg is in the cold outside or in the fridge, and I leave the dispensing line hooked up, is that OK? I’d assume the beer in the line will be flat and I’d pour a bit and dump that. If I remove the tap line how do I clean that, I’d have to remove the dispensing handle and the quick disconnect to get the tube clean. I feel clueless about this simple stupid matter. Or should I buy a cleaning kit of some sort with a pump?
Mine is right around 600gph I believe. Your new one should work just fine.
I feel more comfortable disconnecting a picnic tap after use. They are plastic, and cheaper than the stainless faucets, etc, so I trust them less. I’m sure others out there may disagree, and they leave theirs connected.
Regardless of that decision, I always keep a spray bottle with sanitizer around, so I can quickly sanitize anything that needs to be sanitized. I suggest you do the same. Whether you choose to disconnect or not, squirting the sanitizer into the faucet opening and the connection post is quick and a good habit to get into.
As far as how to clean it, you can do several things:
- use co2 to push cleaner then sanitizer through.
- simply soak it in a bucket. Be sure to open the valve, and disconnect the ball lock connector so the solution gets into the line. Again, first cleaner (PBW or unscented OxyClean, or BLC), then sanitizer.
- get one of those hand pump things or an electric pump and pump the solutions through.
HTH-
This is my SOP every time. I one left a picnic tap connected. I lost a full keg due to plastic failure. Never again, the mess was as bad as the loss of beer and CO2.