Cleaning My Beer Lines

[beerdrinker]

Hey,

I'm about to clean my beer lines (I think they might be giving my beer an off taste...) and I just wanted to run my method of cleaning by you guys before I go ahead with the clean.

1st: I'm gonna fill a keg with hot water and oxy clean, and run that through both lines.
2nd: Then empty that and fill the keg with 5 gallons of water (cold I think) and 1 tsp bleach, stir in well, and one tsp vinegar and run that through the lines.
3rd: Re hook up my kegs and run a pint from each to rinse out the lines.

My Idea here is that the oxy clean will clean the lines a bit, and then the bleach/vinegar combo will sanitize, plus remove and oxyclean flavour left over.

One question, how long should I let the oxyclean and bleach/vinegar sit in the lines before flushing them? I want to give them enough contact time to get the job done.

*NOTE: DO NOT MIX VINEGAR AND BLEACH DIRECTLY*

[Todd]

That might be more than necessary, here's what I've been doing for some time and it's worked very well:

I use B-L-C line cleaner, which is a concentrated alkaline cleanign solution, and I dilute this in regular tap water and keep that in a keg. I run this solution through the lines to push our the old beer and let the solution sit in the lines for 10-15 minutes. Basically, by the time I've worked my way down the line, it's time to start back at the beginning.

After a short soak in the BLC solution, I run tap water through the lines from another keg. I run about a pint through each one and that cleans out the BLC nicely. This takes care of the lines and the faucets fairly well.

You just have to be careful wehn you draw that first beer out of each or you'll catch that water, but that's it.

I do this about once a month. I only have to disassemble the faucets for a more extensize cleanign every 4-6 months this way.

If you wanted to use a different cleanign chemical, or a 'beer stone' remover, you could do that in place of the BLC.

Todd

[beerdrinker]

BLC is of course the best option, but I don't have any, so that's why I thought I'd give it a shot with the combo...

[Brew Engineer]

I'm pretty new to kegging, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I've got a two keg kegerator, and three kegs, so when I clean a keg to swap it out, I'll clean the keg with Oxyclean, and then run that through the lines for several minutes (2-3 gallons). Then I'll rinse out the keg, and rinse out the line with about a gallon worth of water. Then, when I sanitize the keg, I'll run star san through the lines for several minutes.

I do this every time I change a keg, which is probably more than I need to, but given the logistics of my keg to tap ratio, it only adds a few minutes to my keg day, since I'm already cleaning my kegs. You may need more time to soak, if you're not cleaning them often.

[beerdrinker]

I'm pretty new to kegging, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I've got a two keg kegerator, and three kegs, so when I clean a keg to swap it out, I'll clean the keg with Oxyclean, and then run that through the lines for several minutes (2-3 gallons). Then I'll rinse out the keg, and rinse out the line with about a gallon worth of water. Then, when I sanitize the keg, I'll run star san through the lines for several minutes.

I do this every time I change a keg, which is probably more than I need to, but given the logistics of my keg to tap ratio, it only adds a few minutes to my keg day, since I'm already cleaning my kegs. You may need more time to soak, if you're not cleaning them often.

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that someone else has used oxyclean with their lines

[Mylo]

I use BLC. If I didn't have any - then I would go get some.

Mylo

[BDawg]

I've used BLC (alone, followed by a rinse with clean sanitized water) and the PBW/Star-San combo.
Both work well. I can't see any reason why the oxyclean/vinegar&bleach combo wouldn't work. I say, go for it.

[mordantly]

about the b.l.c. and cleaning lines.... it works great as long as you rinse the line or re-tap very quickly after a keg blows. once the foam in there dries, b.l.c. CAN'T clean it... and that was after a 45 day soak at the recommended dilution.