Keg tips

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kook

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Just wondering if anyone had any good keg tips?

Most people seem to have different methods for carbonation and serving. What pressures do you guys run (carb + serving) ?

Also, what method (and products) do you use to clean/sterilise your kegs and lines ?

Cheers!
Anthony.
 
Does anyone know how to remove soda/sugar crap from an old keg?

I've tried a caustic soda / water mixture to clean it out but that doesnt seem to be working very well.

Any tips ??
 
I use Pink Stain to clean my kegs.

I carbonate the keg at 300kpa for 48 hours.
I only start carbonating though after the keg has been in the fridge for 10 hours or so (so it has had time to cool down).
For serving, I release the pressure, then start pouring and add the pressure required to get a nice flow out of the tap.
When I'm finishing drinking for the night I put about 80kpa in the keg to keep head pressure.

Cheers,
Doc
 
Kook - Doc has the right advice for this problem. When we get our kegs in from the supplier, they invariably have amounts of old - often hard - syrup left behind from the last owner. I give them a healthy dose of pink stain, let them sit for about five minutes and rinse them out. It works everytime with very little effort involved.

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
 
Cheers guys.

I'll give the pink steri stuff a go. I was told this can pitt the surface of stainless steel so i've been avoiding it for the moment. I'll give it a go tonight.

PMyers, thats exactly what the problem is. I've got these off a guy who just got them straight from the US s/hand. Theyre in fine condition, its just this on has white sugar-like soda residue along the sides and lid of it..

Cheers again!
 
yes, don't leave the pink stain in them for too long and give them a good rinse with cold water afterwards and you will be fine.

Beers,
Doc
 
Also, ensure you rinse between the o-ring and the lid to remove any excess PSR. This is generally where people have the pitting problem. If you rinse it thoroughly, you should avoid this problem.

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
 
PMyers said:
Also, ensure you rinse between the o-ring and the lid to remove any excess PSR. This is generally where people have the pitting problem. If you rinse it thoroughly, you should avoid this problem.

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
Cheers :)

I'll be sure to rinse the whole thing very well. I'm replacing the seals anyway so I'll make sure i rinse the lid well. I'll get some pink steri down the tubes too, hopefully that will clean them internally. I dont have a brush suitable for cleaning the pickup tube unfortunately.
I'm going to use proxitane to sanitise the keg. Has anyone had any experiences with this sanitiser? I've been told its very good (if handled carefully).

I'll hopefully have fresh tap beer going on the weekend! :)
 
I half fill my keg with hot water and pink stain, then shake it all up.
Then put in the keg fridge and run it though the tap. This also cleans the beer line.

Then I half fill with fresh water and shake it all up.
Then put it in the frigdge and run it through the same tap.

I then have a clean keg and beer line and beer tap.

Sorted.

Cheers,
Doc
 
Hmm.

I've tried pink steri, didnt do a thing.

I'm beginning to wonder if its not sugar afterall. It almost seems like staining on the walls of the keg. It looks "matt". Almost powdercoat like. Not shiny at all. The outside of the spear tube is like it too. Hmm.

I've given up on cleaning that keg for the moment and just racked the brew into the other one. Tis in the fridge :)
 
Here is another tip that will potentially save you on CO2.
Get a water spray bottle and put some dish washing detergent in it and some water and shake it up.
Use it to spray all the joints etc on your keg when you put pressure (CO2) in it to start carbonating your beer. If there are any leaks where you have sprayed (joins, pressure release valve, hatch etc) you will see bubbles. If you don't fix those leaks you will waste your CO2 bottle pretty quick.

Beers,
Doc
 
kook said:
Hmm.

I've tried pink steri, didnt do a thing.

I'm beginning to wonder if its not sugar afterall. It almost seems like staining on the walls of the keg. It looks "matt". Almost powdercoat like. Not shiny at all. The outside of the spear tube is like it too. Hmm.
Alright then. Now you have to decide wether you want to risk leaving the pink in the keg overnight. I have done so before with good results and no evidence of pitting, but I may have simply been lucky. You may want to give it a double or even triple dose of pink if this is the case.
Either that or try some CLR. I have never used it on a keg before, and am unsure what effect it will have on S/S, but it is an excellent all-purpose "crud" remover. Any one out there know a little more on this?

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
 
Doc said:
Here is another tip that will potentially save you on CO2.
Get a water spray bottle and put some dish washing detergent in it and some water and shake it up.
Use it to spray all the joints etc on your keg when you put pressure (CO2) in it to start carbonating your beer. If there are any leaks where you have sprayed (joins, pressure release valve, hatch etc) you will see bubbles. If you don't fix those leaks you will waste your CO2 bottle pretty quick.

Beers,
Doc
Done that already..

Thanks for the tip though :)

Was real handy as it detected a small leak in the hatch, reseating it fixed the problem.
 
PMyers said:
Alright then. Now you have to decide wether you want to risk leaving the pink in the keg overnight. I have done so before with good results and no evidence of pitting, but I may have simply been lucky. You may want to give it a double or even triple dose of pink if this is the case.
Either that or try some CLR. I have never used it on a keg before, and am unsure what effect it will have on S/S, but it is an excellent all-purpose "crud" remover. Any one out there no a little more on this?

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
I'll have a talk to the guy I bought the keg off and see what he thinks I should do. I really thought it was sugar but I doubt it is now.

What does pitting look like by the way ?
 
No idea, but probably like advanced stages of rust - without the rustiness. That is, small holes etched in the surface of the S/S, like tiny craters. Bad pitting would eventually lead to larger holes and even eat its way through the S/S.

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
 
Well, I've finally got round to posting some pics of my little keg setup. I've still got to connect the line for the second tap, i'll get round to that next week when I put another keg in there.

fridge1.JPG


Fridge. You can see my rather large drip tray :p

pour.JPG


Pouring some brown ale :)

tops.JPG


Me looking like a tool! :rolleyes:

Cheers again to GMK for getting hold of the Andale pulldown taps for me, theyre bloody brilliant!
 
Excellent Kook.
Welcome to the wonderful world of not washing bottles.
Looks like a great brew you have on tap too.

But why the padlock on the fridge?

I think we should start a new thread where members can post their kegging setups, to give the new guys some ideas.

Cheers,
Doc
 
Tis a nice brew :) simple too! I've just got to stop draining the keg so quickly.

The reason for the padlock is because its on my back verandah (fully enclosed area, just no real security though). I lock it at night / when i'm at work, and the taps pull off the side. Its more a deterant than anything else.
 
A mere padlock isn't going to stop me coming round your house with a ute and 4 guys to carry that fridge off your porch! hehehe.... I know where you live! Actually I don't remember the exact address but I'm sure I could find it.

:)

Vinds.
 
Vindaloo said:
A mere padlock isn't going to stop me coming round your house with a ute and 4 guys to carry that fridge off your porch! hehehe.... I know where you live! Actually I don't remember the exact address but I'm sure I could find it.

:)

Vinds.
Haha :)

You'll need 4 guys, its frigging heavy!
 
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