# Beer Line Cleaning Keg!



## KHB (30/6/09)

While brewing yesterday with woodmac we were discussing beer line cleaning. I like to run hot napisan, followed by cold water to flush and a jug of hot kettle water after that. The only thing i hate is the co2 wasted when doing this as it uses 3 kegs worth. So we talked about this and i put it together this morning. 







Works a treat. Just needed abit of plumbers tape. So no more co2 wastage for me when cleaning the lines.

Cheers
Scotsman


----------



## raven19 (30/6/09)

Can we get a few more piccies of the connection to the hand pump bottle?

Nice work that.

Cheers!


----------



## KHB (30/6/09)

All i did was used a 1/2 inch socket to connect the ball lock to the original thread on the pump. I just had to cut the top plastic part off the line connection from the pump so it was flat and put a ball lock washer in between.


----------



## pixelboy (30/6/09)

Great Idea..

Am I guessing right you just need the hand pump and one of these?

http://craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=931


----------



## alowen474 (30/6/09)

If you had an air compressor handy you could use that to charge your keg?


----------



## KHB (30/6/09)

Todd Baker said:


> Great Idea..
> 
> Am I guessing right you just need the hand pump and one of these?
> 
> http://craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=931




Yeah that will work i will be looking to make a party keg like this soon


----------



## KHB (30/6/09)

beerforal said:


> If you had an air compressor handy you could use that to charge your keg?




That was discussed but i dont have one


----------



## Screwtop (30/6/09)

All I do is make up 5L of 20:1 bleach solution. Tip into a spare keg and add a bit of gas, disconnect all serving kegs, one by one connect each beer line to the keg and run about 500 ml of bleach solution through the taps, rinse out the keg and make up 5L of no rinse sanitiser and tip that into the keg and add a bit of gas. Leave the bleach solution in the line and tap for a few hours or overnight. One by one connect each beer line to the keg and run about 500ml ofno rinse through, shut off and leave in the line and tap for a few hours. Connect beer lines up to the serving kegs again and pour a glass to clear the sanitiser and discard. Nothing difficult about it and only uses a little gas, just enough to move the solution through the taps.


Good to see how others do it.

Screwy


----------



## mrpolly (30/6/09)

Screwtop said:


> All I do is make up 5L of 20:1 bleach solution. Tip into a spare keg and add a bit of gas



Im sure the stainless would love that. Any signs of pitting yet?


----------



## Sammus (30/6/09)

mrpolly said:


> Im sure the stainless would love that. Any signs of pitting yet?



that's a very weak solution in contact for all of about a minute that it takes to run a few hundred ml through each tap, so I doubt it


----------



## mrpolly (30/6/09)

Ahhh ok NP. Have been told by others that bleach and ss is a no go. what would the limit be?


----------



## RagingBull (30/6/09)

Looks like a good setup, 
If i have a spare keg free (or before i keg a new batch) i add approx 2L of boiling water and keg powder cleaner and shake the shiz out of the keg, creating enough pressure inside which pushes the cleaning solution through out the beer post - saving me C02.

If i run out of kegs one day i'll try this rather than buy another few kegs.. how much did it end up costing you abouts?


----------



## Sammus (30/6/09)

mrpolly said:


> Ahhh ok NP. Have been told by others that bleach and ss is a no go. what would the limit be?



wouldn't have a clue, and I ain't game to try and test it 

I've read that dilute solutions are OK for short periods of contact. ie wouldn't want to leave the solution in there for days.


----------



## stueywhytcross (30/6/09)

great idea!, will be rigging up something similar for sure.


----------



## KHB (30/6/09)

RagingBull said:


> Looks like a good setup,
> If i have a spare keg free (or before i keg a new batch) i add approx 2L of boiling water and keg powder cleaner and shake the shiz out of the keg, creating enough pressure inside which pushes the cleaning solution through out the beer post - saving me C02.
> 
> If i run out of kegs one day i'll try this rather than buy another few kegs.. how much did it end up costing you abouts?




The sprayer was 34 bucks, dissconnect was 24 and socket 2 bucks

Cheers


----------



## /// (30/6/09)

Unfortunately I know a bit about cleaning lines .... and bleach is not the solution to use.

Bleach will not remove or kill what you want to kill and remove. Some localised affect may be had, but most likely any molds and bacteria are only having the colour removed from them. You are definately not removing biofilm, proteins and tannins which are the attach point and major contibuting factor to beer 'off' flavours.

Scotty


----------



## Thirsty Boy (30/6/09)

I agree with Scotty - but then again, screwtop has been doing this for a fair while, so his method must have some practical merit to it after all.

If I were using that garden sprayer (I've done it his way with kegs) , I would be filling it with pbw solution and running the whole 5-6L through each line/tap - then rinsing with at least an equal volume of water. Emulating a burst rinse by occasionally turning the sprayer upside down and letting air push through the line - then back rightside up for rinse water again. Burst rinsing is more effective than continuous rinsing (how effectively this method emulates burst rinsing is a differnet story.. but it seems like a good idea??)

I mostly pull down all my lines and taps - soak in cleaner of the day - which has been nappisan, but has recently changed to pbw (which I think may work by magic) - rinse - sanitise. I will soon be changing to towers etc which are much harder to pull down - will need to clean in place, so I like this idea with the sprayer - I think I'm gonna make me one (btw - same sort of sprayer can be had at bunnings for about $8-10)

Thanks

TB


----------



## KHB (1/7/09)

Thirsty Boy said:


> I think I'm gonna make me one (btw - same sort of sprayer can be had at bunnings for about $8-10)
> 
> Thanks
> 
> TB




Yeah i know but its a fair drive to bunnings for me ATM!
Im gonna add a no rinse sanitizer to go through last from now on.

Cheers


----------



## ChookWA (10/11/10)

Hi KHB,

I know the threads a bit old now, but can you provide more detail on how to get the keg post attached to the hills pump spray. I grabbed a new hills 5 L pump spray and the out connection is a wide thread ~13mm and the keg post is a fine thread ~8-9mm. Do you have some sort of converter in between the two?


----------



## MarkBastard (10/11/10)

HoppyHooker said:


> Hi KHB,
> 
> I know the threads a bit old now, but can you provide more detail on how to get the keg post attached to the hills pump spray. I grabbed a new hills 5 L pump spray and the out connection is a wide thread ~13mm and the keg post is a fine thread ~8-9mm. Do you have some sort of converter in between the two?



Hello Hoppy,

If you just want to use this for line cleaning you don't need the post. The actual stiff grey plastic tube that goes between the nozzle and the handle that has the trigger on it is 8mm OD. So if you take that off you can attach standard 8mm beer line directly to the pressure sprayer.

With that in mind, it's better to get a john guest adapter that allows you to easily connect 8mm line to 8mm line. Then you can use the pressure sprayer itself to push the cleaning solution through the lines. No need to waste co2.


----------



## ChookWA (10/11/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Hello Hoppy,
> 
> If you just want to use this for line cleaning you don't need the post. The actual stiff grey plastic tube that goes between the nozzle and the handle that has the trigger on it is 8mm OD. So if you take that off you can attach standard 8mm beer line directly to the pressure sprayer.
> 
> With that in mind, it's better to get a john guest adapter that allows you to easily connect 8mm line to 8mm line. Then you can use the pressure sprayer itself to push the cleaning solution through the lines. No need to waste co2.



Hi M^B,

What I was hoping for was to be able to just plug in the ball lock connection from the taps (that normally click onto the beer out post on the keg) onto the pressure sprayer and run through the taps that way. But I'll take the laptop out to the beer fridge and re-read your post to see if I can figure it out.

Thanks for the prompt reply.


----------



## ChookWA (10/11/10)

Worked it out. Thanks again M^B. Screwed the beer out cornie post fitting onto the spray wand thread and it works fine.

Now to mix up some warm PBW.

I've seen mention of Napisan to use as keg and beer line cleaner. Does this work and if so what quantity of Napisan to water?


----------



## thesunsettree (10/11/10)

HoppyHooker said:


> Worked it out. Thanks again M^B. Screwed the beer out cornie post fitting onto the spray wand thread and it works fine.
> 
> Now to mix up some warm PBW.
> 
> I've seen mention of Napisan to use as keg and beer line cleaner. Does this work and if so what quantity of Napisan to water?


Hi hoppy,

my usual dilution is 1 teaspoon to 2l of water, others prob different but that works for me.

Cheers
matt


----------

