7.9 gallon sanke kegs

[Quin]

Today I was gifted three 7.9 gallon sanke kegs that appear to have been previously used for wine. They've been sitting in the back corner of a restaurant for a long time and are filthy. The spears are loose and can be pulled right out and the valves look pretty questionable.

They seem too narrow to be cut and used for kettles, so I"m wondering is it worth trying to rehab these things to fill with homebrew? Is this easy to do or is the expense and hassle not worth it? Any other thoughts on creative uses for these?

You can buy replacement spears (valves), o rings, and retainer rings. They are easy to rehab and much simpler than corny kegs (less parts).

[11amas]

They are harder to clean of course. I brewed a double batch of kolsch a few months back; after fermentation, half went into my corny, half into my neighbor's sixtel. We soaked the sixtel for about 12 hours in PBW (as hot as my faucet made the water). I soaked the spear upside down full of PBW for a few hours (should have been longer I guess). I then let PBW flow through the valve while the spear was upside down. I brushed the spear inside after the soak. I shined light into the keg and it was shiny clean.
So, my beer was very tasty. My neighbor's beer had a distinct black butte porter taste to it. Not dramatic but very noticeable in a light beer. The sankey had been sitting for about 9-12 months with a little bit of old beer in it but I figured the PBW soak was enough...not so. I did a tablespoon per the 5 gallons; was that too low of a dose? I felt kind of bad but he liked the beer. His GF wouldn't drink it though because it was not kolsch-like; had roastiness!

[ApresSkiBrewer]

llamas, i think a tablespoon was a pretty gentle mixture for that soak. Weigh that shit out, and it tends to be a bit more PBW than you would use when you eyeball it. (at least it was for me)

[ajdelange]

Sometimes the only thing that seems to clean them up is a soak in hot caustic or, better still, inverting the keg and pumping hot caustic up the spear and out the gas port of a coupler. Hot caustic is, of course, potentially very nasty stuff so the usual caveats about face shields, gloves etc. definitely apply.

[11amas]

Ok, let's say I don't like the idea of getting blinded. I can probably rig up an inverted system to pump hot PBW into a sankey. That would be nice for cornies as well with different fittings. So, point 1, 1tbl/5g is not enough for CIP with PBW; what is the recommended concentration? What kind of pump would I need to push PBW into an inverted sankey spear through a sankey tap? I just acquired a couple of used ones so I can dedicate one to a cleaning rig.
something like this?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=94648

PBW will eat teflon so do I need to worry about some of these pumps so the seals don't just corrode? How about bucket heaters? Will they withstand CIP strength PBW and SaniRinse so I can heat as I pump?

I am thinking a doc and tasty style cleaning system that can hold a tall pony, a sixtel, and a 3-5g corny.

[ajdelange]

I use a 2 HP pump which was sized to present adequate pressure and flow to a CIP ball in a fermenter and is, therefore, overkill for keg cleaning but it really blasts the juice up there. A simple test of adequate performance from the pump might be to use it to force hot water up the spear of an inverted keg. Turn it on for about 2 seconds and then off again. If the sides of the keg are uniformly warm to the touch then the water is obviously being splattered across the bottom with enough vigour to reach the sides and cascade down and this should be sufficient to insure adequate access of whatever cleaning chemicals you chose.

[Quin]

Ok, let's say I don't like the idea of getting blinded. I can probably rig up an inverted system to pump hot PBW into a sankey. That would be nice for cornies as well with different fittings. So, point 1, 1tbl/5g is not enough for CIP with PBW; what is the recommended concentration? What kind of pump would I need to push PBW into an inverted sankey spear through a sankey tap? I just acquired a couple of used ones so I can dedicate one to a cleaning rig.
something like this?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=94648

PBW will eat teflon so do I need to worry about some of these pumps so the seals don't just corrode? How about bucket heaters? Will they withstand CIP strength PBW and SaniRinse so I can heat as I pump?

I am thinking a doc and tasty style cleaning system that can hold a tall pony, a sixtel, and a 3-5g corny.

I believe it's a couple OUNCES per five gallons. You'll have to read the directions.

While a pump would be nice, it isn't necessary. Just disassemble it and soak at the recommended concentrations. There are too many nooks and crannies in a spear and sanke tap to trust it to just PBW and star san.

[bambrew]

I'll second that your concentration of PBW was off. The instructions say for cleaning kegs it is 3/4 of an ounce per single gallon. So with a 7 gallon keg you should be using around 5 ounces of this stuff. I've weighed it out in the past to figure out exactly how much to use because it does seem like a lot. You could use a little less with a longer soak, but not too much less. You need to use that much though to get the benefit of it really cleaning without having to scrub every inch of it. Hope that helps.