How do you store cornelius kegs - Long Term

[Bats]

Just wondering how you guys out there store your empty kegs when not using them.

I know that some give them a good clean, dry out completely and store.

Some clean, sanitise, leave a bit of sanitiser in the bottom and pressurise.

Some clean, sanitise, dry, pressurise.

What's the best method?

 

[QldKev]

I store all mine in the fridge as is.

When the keg blows it's full of CO2 and it's sanitary, otherwise your beer would have tasted infected. So leave it in the fridge full of CO2 until next time you want to use it. Beer stores this way for a long time, why not store the keg that way?

If for any reason the keg gets left out of a fridge, I just give it a good clean before storing it. Then another quick clean and sanatise before putting it back into service.


QldKev

 

[Bats]

I wish I had the room to keep empty kegs in the fridge (or keezer in my house).

As soon as one is empty, it's replaced with a full one.

I usually have about 3 or so kegs empty awaiting fill. Hence why I'm shopping around for the best option to store them.

 

[mmmyummybeer]

I place some PBW in the keg add some boiled water, shake and flush through outlets. Rinse then put more boiled water shake and rinse outlets, empty water, put some CO2in then leave until ready to use. When I'm ready to use I place some Star San in, add boiling water and shake and flush through outlets. Remove Star San and then fill.
I don't wait for them to dry before storing but so far have found that with the boiling water they don't seem to have gone stagnate and figure they are getting sanitized before use. There is lots of different methods out there, but this seem to work well me.

 

[stuchambers]

Once the kegs blows I disconnect from system replace with a full keg. Old keg gets placed next to the fridge on the pile of empty kegs.
When I'm ready to keg a new batch I grab a keg give it a 10min soak with some napisan. Then add some starsan and pressurise shake and empty through gas in, beer out and PRV. Add new beer and then connect to gas at serving pressure.

Basically I leave it pressurised containing what ever dregs are left.

Cheers
Stu

 

[Rowy]

Keg blows, I put it to the side still pressurised. Next time I'm doing brewing stuff I rinse then put a kettle of boiling water in with nappysan. Pressurise, though you don't really have to as the mixture does the job. Run a bit of the hot napisan mix through the out tube and then let sit with the napisan in it until I need it. On that day I just rinse the napisan out, put in some starsan run this through liquid out tube and then keg. I like this method as a like the idea of the napisan sitting in the bottom of the keg where most of the nasties would be.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Rinse all the beer out of the keg.

Soak in napisan.

Pump a bit of co2 in, run the napisan through my beer line and leave that to sit in the beer line for a few days.

After a few days........let the liquid flow through the beer line until there is no more pressure.

Rinse a couple of times (keg and beer line) and let it drain.

Store keg upside down, or with lid sitting loosely on keg.

When ready to reuse, sanitise.

Edit. Delete unwanted werdz.

 

[TidalPete]

Overkill rules lots of times whether it's storing kegs, cleaning anything, sanitising anything or doing whatsoever but for cleaning kegs I ----

1 -- Blast out empty keg with (click-on) hose.
2 -- Do the same via both inlet/outlet posts.
3 -- Add 100% sodium perc & sit for 12 hours before upending for another 12 hours.
4 -- Rinse & store.

 

[Bribie G]

To Pete's regime, which I do myself, I'd add some Starsan, just a few drops in a glass of water would suffice, shake and store. Then on refilling just upend to drain out the liquid and you are right to go. If you are real Nazi then rinse out the Starsan solution with a kettle of boiling water.

 

[TidalPete]

To Pete's regime, which I do myself, I'd add some Starsan, just a few drops in a glass of water would suffice, shake and store. Then on refilling just upend to drain out the liquid and you are right to go. If you are real Nazi then rinse out the Starsan solution with a kettle of boiling water.

Happy to continue my keg clean-out post Bribie.
Keg is cleaned as per Post 8 & ready for the next brew.

Boil electric kettle & transfer to keg,
Shake like there's no tomorrow.
Empty keg through the "Out" post. & re-Boil the saved water.
Add your chosen sanitiser to the keg before adding the re-boiled water to keg once again.
Shake like there's no tomorrow.
Empty the liquid from the now sanitised keg through the "Outpost" into a container for further sanitising of your brewery

Ready for kegging ----- Too easy!

 

[TBird]

Slightly off topic, for those using napisan, what strength do you make it up to?

Cheers

 

[Westo]

5Ltr Water with 1 - 2 Tablespoons of Napisan

 

[Grainer]

mine are all empty

 

[Moad]

I think everyone would be aware but I'll point this out anyway, sodium percarbonate is the active ingredient in Napisan (about 30% in coles version) and you don't get the rest of the soapy crap in it if you buy the pure stuff.

I don't sanitise, I just use sodium percarbonate everywhere and I have had one infection so far in a year of brewing (which was because I left the lid off the fermenter).

It isn't all that more expensive than Napisan if you can buy in bulk and split it.

Edit: My cleaning regime is about 50g of sodium perc into 20 litres of water around 80c to fill the keg. Let it sit for 30 minutes or so and then flip. Run through the beer line for a litre or two then empty upside down into a bucket and sit it in there to clean the lid etc. Rinse with hot water and put the lid back on.

I repeat again if I'm using it after its been stored.

 

[Bizier]

I store them badly, crusted with sediment of godknows what. Possibly the remnants of a sour.

But ideally, I would do an alkaline clean followed by an acid rinse to promote stainless passivation, then dry.

 

[AndrewQLD]

sodium percarbonate soak, rinsed, flushed, acid rinsed and stored upside down with the lid off.

 

[Bribie G]

Now why didn't I think of storing upside down? The bleedin obvious really.

 

[shaunous]

Had mine in storage for just over 12months, I cleaned and threw the cheap powdered sanitiser you normally get from the LHBS, you know, the stuff when you sniff it burns your whole respiratory system. Starsan would have been useless after this length in storage, I stored un-pressurised, even when I took the lids off and sniffed the stuff was still burny, I rinsed after this long then filled with beer, no problems.

 

[Khellendros13]

Same as Qldkev, as I have 4 kegs and room for 5.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I just blast the empty keg with the hose a few times to get all the yeast and crud out.

Then I let it drip dry upside down. Store it in the laundry with the lid off to ensure it fully drys out.

When it comes time to using again I use boiling water, sodium perc, a good shake and flush it through the lines. Empty and a good shake with Star San.

Never had any issues with this method.