How Do You Clean Beer Keg Lines

Beer line cleanliness is one of the well-nigh of import parts of beer service. If your beer line is not clean, you lot volition accept issues with foam retention and off-flavors in your beers. In this blog mail service, we will discuss how to clean beer line, how to go on your kegerator make clean, and how commercial breweries and taphouses maintain their beer lines for a great tasting product!

Why Clean Your Beer Lines Anyways?

Picture of Mold

Mold flourishes in beer

You want to clean beer lines considering yeast and bacteria will get-go feeding on the beer in your lines as soon as you start dispensing beer. Unfortunately, you tin can't finish this. Also, biofilm deposits will begin to build up inside clean beer lines. If they aren't contained the deposits will shortly fester, touch on the flavor of the beer and undermine the draft beer system altogether. So cleaning beer lines is a necessity, and should be taken seriously.

How To Clean A Beer Line

If you lot have a personal kegerator, the first footstep to maintaining make clean beer lines is to clean your equipment after each use. You can exercise this past running h2o through all of the pieces and gently scrubbing with PBW. This is a skilful place to first, but it's not plenty on its own.

Here's a 11 Step guideline to make clean beer lines on your kegerator or pocket-sized beer system:

Footstep One:

Close of the Gas to the kegerator or beer system

Pace two:

Disconnect the coupler from the keg, and open the beer faucet to release beer from the line.

Pace Iii:

Employ a spanner wrench to take off the beer faucet. You want to plough this clockwise to loosen

Picture of a Beer Wrech

Step 4:

Take a crescent wrench and loosen the beer basics on the coupler. The production side and airside volition have beer basics attaching them to the coupler. When loosening the production side make sure to watch for the beer gasket inside the beer nut. These will sometimes fall off when yous disconnect. Make sure to take out the Thomas valve on the air side.

Picture of a Beer Keg Coupler

Step V:

Take the Beer Faucet and Coupler and soak in a caustic solution with hot h2o. The ratio is usually 2-3% depending on the brand of caustic. Most solutions will accept directions on them for the correct ratio to use. Permit the equipment soak in the solution for at least xv minutes.

Step Six:

Make caustic solution to make clean kegerator beer lines. Once more follow the instructions on the bottle or container for the right ratio to add to water. Note you lot e'er want to add the solution to a bucket of warm water. Non the other style effectually.

Step Seven:

Before calculation Caustic to the beer system or kegerator. Fill the bottle with warm water and flush the beer from the unabridged beer system. There are many different cleaning kits available. If you are using a kegerator the uncomplicated pump and plastic bottle with be fine. Information technology's nice to use a small bucket y'all can run water and caustic into.

Picture of Hand Pump

Get your kegerator cleaning kit here

Step Viii:

After flushing the beer from the organisation fill plastic bottle with a correct mixed cleaning solution. Screw the end into where the faucet goes past tightening the faucet collar. Likewise, make certain the end has a gasket/washer so information technology doesn't leak all over the place when you pump the solution through the arrangement. Pump the caustic solution through the beer tower and out the product line cease that would connect to the coupler. Again, dainty to have a niggling bucket there so you don't make a mess. Pump the solution until it empties into the bucket. Now, let the solution sit in your beer system for 20 minutes.

Stride 9:

Go back to your small saucepan with your beer faucet and beer coupler. Rinse the coupler and Faucet with fresh water getting rid of the caustic solution. It's nice to wear latex gloves when you lot do this by the manner. Subsequently yous've rinsed the coupler and faucet take autonomously the beer faucet and scrub with a cleaning brush. Get inside the faucet, on top where the neckband is to get whatsoever particles of yeast or bacteria out of there. Rinse in common cold water and reassemble.

Information technology's nice to do this with the coupler too. Y'all don't have to do information technology every time yous make clean your beer faucets but I would clean them every month. Just my personal preference.

Footstep Ten:

Later on the solution has settled in the beer system for xx minutes. Accept the bottle and fill with cold fresh water. Flush the caustic solution out of the beer system. You will do this multiple times. Afterwards your iv-5 fourth dimension bank check the ph level of your tap water and compare it to the water in your draft system. Y'all can use PH Strips or a PH Meter to do this. Information technology ensures you got all of the solution out of your beer system. When the PH Strip or meter read 7 or match your tap h2o PH. You are ready to retap kegs.

Here'south a PH Meter Below. I use this for cleaning beer lines and information technology's better than strips in my personal opinion. Quick reads and precise. You lot tin can pick them upwardly from Amazon.

Stride Eleven:

Reattach the beer faucet, The beer coupler past tightening the beer hex nuts for the product and airside. Turn your gas back on, Re-tap your keg and you lot should exist pouring beer!!

Here'southward a guide from MicroMatic on how to clean your kegerator

How Often Should You Make clean Your Beer Lines?

The industry standard is every two weeks in the commercial field. I am talking about breweries, taphouses, and regular bars. However, not all bide by these rules. Some establishments do a once-a-month cleaning, simply I would e'er recommend every two weeks. The biofilm, leaner, and yeast volition be back in the beer organization shortly. The longer you get without cleaning the more of that stuff festers, affecting how your beer taste and compromising the beer dispensing organization.

Every 3 Months an acid make clean should accept place on top of a caustic clean. The acid clean helps get rid of beer stones in your system, and every half-dozen months the beer equipment should be taken apart and cleaned like couplers, FOBs and other dispensing equipment. Personally, I prefer to make clean couplers monthly because yeast, bacteria still grow on a daily ground.

When information technology comes to your personal kegerator. I would make clean the lines later on every keg is tapped. This fashion you lot can clean the lines before you put on the next beer.

Summary

In endmost we talked nearly why you lot need to clean your beer lines. Yeast, bacteria and mold volition detect their way into your beer arrangement sooner or later. Maintaining a regular cleaning schedule. Volition help mitigate the festering of these microbes and keep beer tasting fresh.

Secondly, nosotros talked about the steps to clean a beer system, and wrapped it up with how oft y'all should make clean your lines.

If you are looking for any beer dispensing equipment. I recommend checking out my recommend products page. 2nd, I talk virtually more draft beer dispensing topics in my blog and encourage you to read it.

Lastly, if you take any further questions you tin can always reach out to me.