Cleaning and sanitizing kegs

[11amas]

Well, I would do this in addition to shaking the keg of starsan and leaving it upside down nearly full for a minute or two. I don't have enough CO2 to spend it on pushing starsan so I take my gas and bev tubes as well as posts and poppets off and soak them in starsan (after a PBW soak). Then, the keg is reassembled and shaken with a gallon or so of starsan. If I were to push with CO2 I would do it at this point just to displace the sanitizer while I fill the keg with CO2.

[ApresSkiBrewer]

star san is probably better than Ioda4 for this, now that you mention that bug. I have both, but tend to use Ioda4... I'll switch over next time.

I usually invert the keg and depress the gas in side/liquid out side as well, to get a little sani solution up in the bits and pieces.

I tend to completely dismantle and soak my posts every time though anyway.

[Mylo]

I've heard lots of talk about the procedure of transfering Star San from keg to keg. I just don't understand how it could possibly be effective. Once the solution comes into the keg, it will fill to the point that it reaches the dip tube. It then would go straight out the dip tube, never reaching higher than an inch from the bottom of the keg. Seems like a great way to sanitize the tubing and other works in the keg, but what about the rest of the cylinder? Am I misunderstanding the procedure here?

Yep... misunderstanding. I keep a full keg of starsan around at all times. I put each keg that needs washing on the "Dr. Scott keg cleaner" for a half hour or so - circulating hot PBW through both poppets and dip tubes. Then I transfer all the starsan out of the starsan keg into the new keg with an "out to out" jumper (and opening the PRV on the destination keg). The old starsan keg is sanitized and completely purged of O2. I store it like this until I need it. I don't think that any critters that might have lived through the starsan can do any growth or damage in a 100% CO2 environment.


Mylo

[mordantly]

yeah its wonderful when you fill a keg, purge and pressurize the head space and than go 'gee i don't want to leave this cobra full of starsan on here' (i put a gallon, roll it arround on the floor for 5 mins than dump it though the cobra back to the storage carboy) so i remove it and get a face full of beer. doh! so at that point i refurbed all 15 kegs with new poppets.

[Stevorino]

I thought you couldn't store StarSan in Stainless Steel kegs for long periods of time....is that not true?

I'd love to keep a keg full of star san and a keg full of line cleaner handy all of the time if I thought it'd wouldn't hurt my kegs.

[Sam Scott]

I thought you couldn't store StarSan in Stainless Steel kegs for long periods of time....is that not true?

I'd love to keep a keg full of star san and a keg full of line cleaner handy all of the time if I thought it'd wouldn't hurt my kegs.

I remember hearing that as well... however, storing Star San in a keg makes life SO much easier that I decided to sacrifice/dedicate one for that sole purpose. I've been using the same keg to store Star San now for over a year (edit: actually, just over two years now). Every once in a while I'll take a peak with a flashlight and, at least so far, there is no visible damage. I thought I would see a ring around the inside at the air/liquid interface.

One thing I like to do is carbonate the Star San... When I make up a new batch, I'll just throw it in my kegerator (chest freezer) and hook it up to the gas at like 20lbs or so and forget about it for a while. After it's carbed, I take it out and store it warm. With a couple volumes of CO2 in there, I can dispense the entire keg without ever hooking it up to gas again. You'll definitely get some foaming this way but it's not a problem as we don't fear the foam, right?

[mordantly]

i store star san in a arrowhead bottle. which i rotate with the 2 i use for drinking water. keeps the algae out..

[11amas]

I wonder how the carbonic acid the CO2 forms in the StarSan will affect it if at all when you store it under pressure like that. Have you ever checked the pH after carbonated?