Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:00 am

Ok, I admit it, I have a drinking problem. I usually have four corny kegs on tap (older picture of kegerator here if desired: http://members.cox.net/jamesrush1/Beer.html), but I don't drink the beer often enough to keep the beer in the lines happy. Not sure exactly what is in the lines, but it will pick up a slight tang over time. Beer in the kegs has been fine, but it takes a few glasses or a line cleaning to flush the flavor.

I want a quicker and easier way to flush the lines. Once done, I'll leave them off the kegs until needed.

I have a draft cleaning kit from MoreBeer, but it requires that everything to be disassembled, which means I only do it when I switch out kegs. I'm looking for something like a bottle that has a keg style tap. Remove the tap from the keg and attach to bottle. I could drain out the line into a glass, change out glass, invert the bottle with star-san and rinse out the line. Close the tap and leave the tap off the keg until it is needed again.

Any thoughts ?
Anybody built anything like this ?


Jim
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:58 am

I keep a corny of PBW and a corny of StarSan around at all times. Quick squirt of whichever you want, then drain, rinse hangup to dry.
What's on tap: Cream Ale, Imperial Blonde
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DannyW
 
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:05 am

DannyW wrote:I keep a corny of PBW and a corny of StarSan around at all times. Quick squirt of whichever you want, then drain, rinse hangup to dry.


How long will the PBW and starsan stay good/legit in a corny? I'm too lazy to go back to the brew strong ep.
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:15 am

StarSan made with RO water will last indefinitely. The keg I have going now is maybe a year old. when it gets down to 4 gal or so, I top it up with another gallon of RO+StarSan.

PBW I keep maybe a month, cycling from one keg to another a they need cleaning. Then I put it in a bottling bucket to soak bottle labels off. Then when it starts to smell (from the label glue I suspect) or loses the slickness you feel when you get it on your fingers I dump it out.
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DannyW
 
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:19 am

DannyW wrote:StarSan made with RO water will last indefinitely. The keg I have going now is maybe a year old. when it gets down to 4 gal or so, I top it up with another gallon of RO+StarSan.

PBW I keep maybe a month, cycling from one keg to another a they need cleaning. Then I put it in a bottling bucket to soak bottle labels off. Then when it starts to smell (from the label glue I suspect) or loses the slickness you feel when you get it on your fingers I dump it out.


Nice tips. I'll get my hands on some RO water for my starsan... that was on my list, at some point in the past. thx. :aaron
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:24 am

Oh, make sure you rotate the starsan from one keg to the next; don't keep it in the same keg all the time. 5Star told me that will eventually pit the keg and you will end up with a leak.
What's on tap: Cream Ale, Imperial Blonde
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DannyW
 
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:29 pm

I think I found what I was looking for: http://morebeer.com/view_product/18250/ ... onator_Cap
I think a carbonation cap on a bottle filled with starsan will allow me to quickly attach the the keg tab and flow starsan down the line.
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Re: Line fouling

Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:46 pm

jimrush wrote:I think I found what I was looking for: http://morebeer.com/view_product/18250/ ... onator_Cap
I think a carbonation cap on a bottle filled with starsan will allow me to quickly attach the the keg tab and flow starsan down the line.



This will work so long as you can take the black liquid connect off and put a gray gas on the carbonator cap only accepts the gas connect.
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