I have a relatively long run from kegerator to tap, and I'm kinda OCD about cleaning my lines. Just wondering what everyone else uses, has made up, and works best for them. Always looking to improve my set up. Right now, I use an old soda keg, fill it with water and cleaner and run about a gallon through the line, then use one of the pump bottles they sell and run clean water back through the other way.
I run cleaner through a keg and then follow that up with Starsan. I don't worry about running water through after that since Starsan is no rinse and the beer will clean it up soon after. I typically am putting a new keg on as soon as one kicks, or reasonably-soon thereafter, so I never worry much about the Starsan, though I don't really think that would do anything other than perhaps cloud up the lines if left in there.
I run hot PWB thru lines and faucets using a corny. I let soak for 15 min, then i rinse with starsan, then i connect to new keg. Every other year I replace all my beer lines for good measure, they are cheap enough.
Any specific reason why you use hot water? My keg has had the same cleaner in it for about a month and I've never done hot through my lines.
I've only been kegging for about a year and a half now but my process is like this: remove kegs, drain, fill with 1.5gal hot water and cleaner, shake shake shake, dump, refill with 1.5gal hot water and cleaner, shake shake shake, hook up to tap lines, out flush 32-64oz of cleaner, disconnect, dump the keg, refill with 1.5 gal hot water and Star San, shake shake shake, reconnect to tap lines, out flush 32-64 oz, dump the keg, fill with beer, ENJOY! I can tell you I've had no problems with cleanliness or sanitation with that method and it usually takes me about 20-30minutes to go from empty/dirty keg to clean/sanitized/full keg. I would love to have an extra keg of cleaner and one of sanitizer around to do intermediate cleanings, but that's just not in my setup right now.
Hot water is better at dissolving crap than cold water in my experience, so I'd rather be safe than sorry on the off chance that cold water didn't do the trick.
PBW dissolves better around 150 degrees. Then just rinse with cold water. My lines are pretty good. I run the hot PBW from the keg on tap A. Take off the faucets, and run a coupler from Tap A faucet connection to Tap B faucet connection, and the end of the B line into an empty keg. Clean both lines at once. Do the same for Lines C and D. I just run cold water through to flush after running the PBW through it, and then hook up the keg right from there. Haven't had an issue.
Think about replacing the lines every once and a while, depending on your set up it might be quicker than cleaning!
Oooph, I don't see how. Not to mention cost factor in changing lines. I clean after every keg. I run BLC through with warm water, then rinse with hot, then cold, also through a pump bottle. It's been working great so far.
I usually do the same but, eventually the lines do not look like new. For one line attaching one end to the tower and putting a nut on the other is quick.
I have two lines into one tower, so getting to the lines means I have to rip the whole tower apart to take them off, not easy to do. I change my lines maybe once every couple of years, no more than that. I will say with the way I do it now, they are not yellowing very much, if at all.
But... don't you clean (and sanitize) your new lines before using? I do. Not doing so introduces a risk of infection.
Neophyte kegger, just finished my first kegged beer. Any reason to avoid using oxyclean? I always used it in my other homebrew ops and don't have PBW or BLC.
I use BLC, and haven't tried Oxiclean for beer lines. But many people have claimed success with oxiclean and lines. My only concern would be that oxiclean sometimes needs a lot of rinsing (at least it does with my glass carboys), so if the same were true with a beer line, that would mean pushing a lot of extra water through.
Thanks. This is where my concern's coming from. Seems like whenever someone starts a thread about cleaning in other homebrew ops, oxyclean use is prevalent, but in various forum threads I was looking at today, only BLC and PBW were discussed.
I haven't fully tested this myself, but oxiclean seems to make water more wettable to glass. Water on glass normally beads up a bit, but oxiclean water will form more of a film. This might not be true for vinyl as the surface chemistries are different. Either way, I'd rinse thoroughly when using oxiclean.
