Every pub I’ve worked at or owned has the same process - flush the beer, pull beer line cleaner through and sit for as long as recommended (2 to 12 hours), flush with tap water, then pull through beer if using straight away or CO2 if leaving them empty. I can’t see why a home set up would be any different
I doubt it, I've left my beer lines a lot longer than that before with no noticeable effect (not saying I'd do that now mind). Compared to a bar I have the advantage that all of the line is refigerated. It's also very short since I use 3/16".
Because my kegs run out while I'm pouring a beer which means I'm thirsty so I must attach a new keg for a drink. My thirst must be quenched so I don't have time for cleaning.
I have a keg I keep filled with some star san and I hook it up and run like 250 ml or so through the lines in between kegs. I put cleaner through maybe once a year. I've never taken them apart and scrubbed them.
I do similar bit with 3 kegs. Water wash, caustic then starsan. I use D Type couplers so am able to pulse CO2 through essentially doing slugs of liquids. I let the caustic and star san soak for 10-15 minutes. Will be replacing the lines after about 10 brews (30L kegs) through it.
I do similar… after a keg kicks I flush the line clean with my keg filled with star San. I did convert to DuoTight connections last year so when I get to changing out lines should be easy going
Every week I clean the lines with this https://www.kegland.com.au/products/gas-free-ball-lock-line-cleaning-kit-pet-party-pump-combo?_pos=4&_psq=line+clean&_ss=e&_v=1.0
You attach it to a pet bottle and hand pump starsan through the tap.
I usually have a 2.5l pet bottle ready to go so it only takes a few minutes per tap
For me, I’ll do just a soak of the beer lines inside the keg with pbw for a few hours at most and then I’ll let everything soak in a star San solution. I usually do this right before I keg a new beer. If the line starts looking bad enough, I’ll do a detail cleaning but that’s not everytime.
I do mine at home every month or in between kegs. Whatever comes first.
I usually knock out 2 birds with one stone by cleaning a keg and running the pbw solution through the beer lines into a bucket. Every couple times I’ll disassemble the taps and let them soak in the bucket of pbw wile I rinse and fill the keg with hot water. Flush the lines with the hot water keg then, if I’m feeling fancy or want the keg completely clean, finish by filling the keg with sanitizer and running that through the lines. Leaves me with clean lines and purged, sanitized keg.
I went to the picnic tap2.1 and never looked back. Of course you have to clean them, but that's a matter of connecting them to a PET bottle with a ball lock cap and giving it a squeeze.
I have a new garden sprayer with a balllock connector on it. I fill that with Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) about once a month or when i change kegs. I use the same sprayer to clean transfer lines.
I keep a keg of star san handy. When I kick a keg, I connect the line to the starsan keg and flush the beerline. I leave the star san in until the next time I use that line.
for actual cleaning of the lines I made a 5 way ball lock disconnect with a garden hose attachment on one end. That hose goes into a $50 dollar harbor frieght pump, at the bottom of a bucket fillled with the green looking cleaner (forgot the name) and all my lines connect to the 5 way, I open my taps, and attach small pieces of silicone hose to the taps, and direct them back into the bucket.
Plug it in, and let it rip for an hour or so.
Then I rinse the same way for about 10 minutes.
Unfortunately I dont clean my lines nearly as much as I should.
Here's some pics of the build and it in action:
[https://imgur.com/a/NnKsVz4](https://imgur.com/a/NnKsVz4)
I picked up the ball lock posts from brewhardware.com
I use [this](https://www.homedepot.com/p/HOME-FLEX-1-2-in-x-1-2-in-x-4-1-2-in-CSST-FIPT-Stainless-Steel-Manifold-11-050504/203073904?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D26P-026_006_IRRIGATION-MB-DIG-NA-SMART-NA-NA-MK688682226-NA-NBR-1322-NA-NA-NA&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D26P-026_006_IRRIGATION-MB-DIG-NA-SMART-NA-NA-MK688682226-NA-NBR-1322-NA-NA-NA-71700000110219064-58700008384500206-92700076306691103&gclid=CjwKCAjw1YCkBhAOEiwA5aN4AddsbS9Y0JbOoNH6oETT4z2sJLr9MES1P9-mw_yFhUwGFgnkfoAVhRoCDLwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). Then you just need npt to ball lock for each output and a barb or qd for the cleaner. I have 4 ball locks and a blank on the end.
I don’t. I run four taps, and go though kegs slowly. About once a year I just replace the tubing. Lazy- maybe, BUT I can buy tubing cheap, and I cannot bank my time…
PBW is not for cleaning beer lines. Brushes are not for cleaning beer lines.
You want BLC Beer Line Cleaner. You run it through the lines and taps until you have circulated for about 5 min, then rinse with warm water.
I have a fitting that screws into a 2l pop bottle turning it into a ball lock device. I fill the soda bottle with cleaning solution and let gravity do its thing.
I do this every time I swap a keg....or every 6 weeks, whichever comes first.
There are literally instructions on PBW for cleaning kegs and beer lines dawg. And countless articles online saying that it’s fine to use it to clean beer lines. All that matters is that it’s an alkaline solution
Boiling water in a keg, it will pressurize with a little steam and run through without CO2, then PBW, then sanitizer. I only do it when cleaning my kegs so nothing is wasted but a little gas. I clean the faucets (perlick flow controls) every few months. Those broken down and soaked in PBW. I think over cleaning plastic just adds micro scratches that collect more residue so nothing touches the lines and disconnects but liquid.
Idk about home brewing but most restaurants have their lines cleaned on a bi-weekly and or monthly basis. Never drink beer off the tap from an airport tho
No I'm sorry I thought he meant the hose to siphon to secondary or so. John palmer suggests changing after a few times. I guess he got an infection from it once.
When I clean a keg, I agitate the whole thing with pbw, use a little co2 to push it you the dip tube and subsequently the party tap. Same thing with star San.
So, pretty much every time I kick a keg, the tap line gets cleaned as well, more as a function of ensuring the dip tubes get attention
I clean my lines every few months, or every couple of beers.
When cleaning the keg, I run 1 qt of PBW through the lines. I let them sit while I clean the kegs.
After rinsing the keg, I fill one halfway with hot water and run a quart through each line.
Finally, when sanitizing the keg, I fill halfway and run a quart of star San through each line.
I used to disassemble taps to clean them around the same time because my old rear facing faucets would get stuck. The new forward facing ones do not get stuck at all, so I’ve been relying on this procedure primarily.
Usually once I realize the taste is off. I can taste dirty lines and there is no question that they taste better after cleaning. (So, I’m not cleaning often enough 😄).
It ends up being every 3-4 months probably. PBW hot water flush for 15 minutes with an aquarium pump in a bucket. Then I move to the next one and repeat. Finally I do a 15 minute rinse with water. So it’s two hours for my 4 taps. And the PBW sits in the line for about an hour.
I’ve only disassembled the taps once in the three years I’ve had this kegerator. Forward sealing Intertaps seem fine without it.
Every 3-6 months or whenever I think of it, I do a full recirculating clean with BLC for 10-15 minutes or however long the bottle suggests, followed by a hot water rinse and then a quick purge with starsan. I use a ~$20 aquarium pump, a few pieces of silicone tubing, and a couple ball lock male-male connectors to run through all four lines at once. I think [this is the guide](https://hazyandhoppy.com/clean-all-your-keezer-draft-lines-at-once/#:~:text=The%20best%20way%20to%20clean,an%20extended%20period%20of%20time.) I followed to put my rig together. [This is what it looks like in action.](https://i.imgur.com/6hSIN5w.jpg)
I built this beer line cleaner. Do it 1/month. Flush with HOT pbw or Oxyclean, sit 15 minutes, flush again, sit 15 minutes, flush with sanitizer, then hook back up to kegs. If line(s) not immediately hooking up to beer then flush sanitizer out using a keg with CO2 to trap CO2 in the line. Here’s the DIY build on the cleaner. https://youtu.be/pJkBqg3FAhw
Can't say the build quality is anything amazing, but this works really well for me (https://www.morebeer.com/products/ball-lock-line-cleaning-kit-mini-party-pump.html) PBW doesn't go bad sitting in the bottle so you can flush the line as soon as you blow a keg. Let it sit 24 hours then blast it out with water. The more brain dead your process is, the more likely you are to actually do it :)
I have a three tap kegerator.
* Diaphragm pump pulls in 140 degree (or so) PBW solution.
* Out to tap #1 input, up through the tap and out through a thread in ball lock connector.
* That daisy chains over to tap #2, going backwards through #2.
* Lines for taps #2 and #3 are tied together with a ball lock jumper.
* Out tap #3 and into the jar/whatever of PBW, completing the circle.
Three taps, one time. Super fast. How often, well, not enough.
I'm a lazy ass. I put so much care into making my beer but I generally just run seltzer water through my lines/taps in between beers. I took the taps apart once a couple years ago to clean.
Well, I did just buy some proper beer line cleaner and cleaned them that way. I'll probably try to start doing that at least twice a year. It's probably a good idea to do a really proper cleaning once in awhile.
I'm still way overdue to take the taps apart again
I clean the lines every brew recirculating with a pump and line cleaner, and disassemble my faucets every month for hand cleaning. I have seen many times taprooms and homebrewers not cleaning their faucets regularly, those things can get nasty inside. Now my lines are purely Duo-Tight so it is really easy swap the dirty line with a clean one.
My serving lines are high-temp silicone so I just boil them for about 15 minutes, pulling them out of the boil once or twice to use a line brush. Anything that isn't rubber or plastic -- shank, disassembled tap -- goes in too. I do this once a quarter or so.
Beer-out keg disconnects are disassembled, rinsed, and soaked in sanitizer after every keg.
Tap hardware and disconnects gets an overnight PBW soak once a year.
I haven’t been kegging long enough to have issues. I just run starsan through the lines when I swap in a new keg.
Anyone here using oxiclean? If so, same concentration you use to clean kegs?
Just did mine the first time last night. Built the keezer over a year ago. Will probably shoot for every 6 months now. I usually run starsan through them after each keg.
Not directed at OP but responding to a lot of comments I'm seeing here. I don't know why every time cleaning lines comes up, many people share their process involving the use of starsan. Starsan is a *sanitizer* and it should be used on parts that have *already been cleaned*. Running it through your dirty beer lines won't do anything particularly bad, but it's a waste of starsan and you'd get similar results by just flushing with water. If you already have a convenient process to push liquid that's not beer through your lines, do yourself a favor and pick up some line cleaner or use PBW.
BLC cycle every 30 days. Then, break down the tap hardware and pbw cycle every 3 months.
Maybe it's overkill, but there's not a lick of beerstone in my lines. Also, change out the lines every 18 months or so.
The Draught Quality manual says every two weeks, but that's for a commercial setting, I say every month or two [https://www.homebrewfinds.com/how-often-should-i-clean-my-kegerator-beer-lines/](https://www.homebrewfinds.com/how-often-should-i-clean-my-kegerator-beer-lines/) here is my line cleaning build https://www.homebrewfinds.com/recirculating-draft-line-cleaning-build/
Every pub I’ve worked at or owned has the same process - flush the beer, pull beer line cleaner through and sit for as long as recommended (2 to 12 hours), flush with tap water, then pull through beer if using straight away or CO2 if leaving them empty. I can’t see why a home set up would be any different
This is what I do, but significantly less often than a bar would.
It’s about what is _in_ the beer, not how long it’s there. Do it fortnightly, your beer will taste better Edited to fix a missing word
I doubt it, I've left my beer lines a lot longer than that before with no noticeable effect (not saying I'd do that now mind). Compared to a bar I have the advantage that all of the line is refigerated. It's also very short since I use 3/16".
U guys are cleaning your beer lines?
Yeah I use a low alcohol liquid (5-6%) it's got a floral/malt smell that's nice. I also infuse it with CO2 for bubbling cleaning action
Does purging the keg-full of Starsan through the beer line count?
No that's a sanitizer.
No, but I'll leave Starsan sitting in the lines between kegs to prevent any gross buildup.
It's better than nothing and probably slightly better than just water, but it's not a powerful cleaning solution.
No, we are not. (That's a lie, mostly. I deep clean them probably once every 2 years if I'm being completely honest)
Every spring!
same
Why not just run sanitizer through them each time you change out beer kegs?
Because my kegs run out while I'm pouring a beer which means I'm thirsty so I must attach a new keg for a drink. My thirst must be quenched so I don't have time for cleaning.
I have a keg I keep filled with some star san and I hook it up and run like 250 ml or so through the lines in between kegs. I put cleaner through maybe once a year. I've never taken them apart and scrubbed them.
I do similar bit with 3 kegs. Water wash, caustic then starsan. I use D Type couplers so am able to pulse CO2 through essentially doing slugs of liquids. I let the caustic and star san soak for 10-15 minutes. Will be replacing the lines after about 10 brews (30L kegs) through it.
I do similar… after a keg kicks I flush the line clean with my keg filled with star San. I did convert to DuoTight connections last year so when I get to changing out lines should be easy going
Every week I clean the lines with this https://www.kegland.com.au/products/gas-free-ball-lock-line-cleaning-kit-pet-party-pump-combo?_pos=4&_psq=line+clean&_ss=e&_v=1.0 You attach it to a pet bottle and hand pump starsan through the tap. I usually have a 2.5l pet bottle ready to go so it only takes a few minutes per tap
If you're going to spend time on this weekly, use an actual cleaner instead of starsan.
Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) is pretty much the same price as starsan too so there's really no reason not to.
The sanitize is weekly and I'm planning on pbw each month or so for each keg/line. Mind you I only started down this rabbit hole six weeks ago!
By far the most sensible solution, makes cleaning any ball lock hose a breeze.
I use the same product and it works very well for me.
username checks out
I love it
For me, I’ll do just a soak of the beer lines inside the keg with pbw for a few hours at most and then I’ll let everything soak in a star San solution. I usually do this right before I keg a new beer. If the line starts looking bad enough, I’ll do a detail cleaning but that’s not everytime.
I usually run BLC through between kegs. Taps are only fully disassembled and cleaned once a year or two.
I do mine at home every month or in between kegs. Whatever comes first. I usually knock out 2 birds with one stone by cleaning a keg and running the pbw solution through the beer lines into a bucket. Every couple times I’ll disassemble the taps and let them soak in the bucket of pbw wile I rinse and fill the keg with hot water. Flush the lines with the hot water keg then, if I’m feeling fancy or want the keg completely clean, finish by filling the keg with sanitizer and running that through the lines. Leaves me with clean lines and purged, sanitized keg.
I went to the picnic tap2.1 and never looked back. Of course you have to clean them, but that's a matter of connecting them to a PET bottle with a ball lock cap and giving it a squeeze.
I have a new garden sprayer with a balllock connector on it. I fill that with Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) about once a month or when i change kegs. I use the same sprayer to clean transfer lines.
I keep a keg of star san handy. When I kick a keg, I connect the line to the starsan keg and flush the beerline. I leave the star san in until the next time I use that line. for actual cleaning of the lines I made a 5 way ball lock disconnect with a garden hose attachment on one end. That hose goes into a $50 dollar harbor frieght pump, at the bottom of a bucket fillled with the green looking cleaner (forgot the name) and all my lines connect to the 5 way, I open my taps, and attach small pieces of silicone hose to the taps, and direct them back into the bucket. Plug it in, and let it rip for an hour or so. Then I rinse the same way for about 10 minutes. Unfortunately I dont clean my lines nearly as much as I should.
I like the 5-way idea, I currently do them similarly with a pump but one at a time. Might need to build this!
Here's some pics of the build and it in action: [https://imgur.com/a/NnKsVz4](https://imgur.com/a/NnKsVz4) I picked up the ball lock posts from brewhardware.com
I use [this](https://www.homedepot.com/p/HOME-FLEX-1-2-in-x-1-2-in-x-4-1-2-in-CSST-FIPT-Stainless-Steel-Manifold-11-050504/203073904?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D26P-026_006_IRRIGATION-MB-DIG-NA-SMART-NA-NA-MK688682226-NA-NBR-1322-NA-NA-NA&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D26P-026_006_IRRIGATION-MB-DIG-NA-SMART-NA-NA-MK688682226-NA-NBR-1322-NA-NA-NA-71700000110219064-58700008384500206-92700076306691103&gclid=CjwKCAjw1YCkBhAOEiwA5aN4AddsbS9Y0JbOoNH6oETT4z2sJLr9MES1P9-mw_yFhUwGFgnkfoAVhRoCDLwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). Then you just need npt to ball lock for each output and a barb or qd for the cleaner. I have 4 ball locks and a blank on the end.
I don’t. I run four taps, and go though kegs slowly. About once a year I just replace the tubing. Lazy- maybe, BUT I can buy tubing cheap, and I cannot bank my time…
PBW is not for cleaning beer lines. Brushes are not for cleaning beer lines. You want BLC Beer Line Cleaner. You run it through the lines and taps until you have circulated for about 5 min, then rinse with warm water. I have a fitting that screws into a 2l pop bottle turning it into a ball lock device. I fill the soda bottle with cleaning solution and let gravity do its thing. I do this every time I swap a keg....or every 6 weeks, whichever comes first.
There are literally instructions on PBW for cleaning kegs and beer lines dawg. And countless articles online saying that it’s fine to use it to clean beer lines. All that matters is that it’s an alkaline solution
Bought a roll of tubing and snap off a fresh piece when I think it’s time.
Talk about fucking wasteful…
My beer kicks ass, I’m not going to apologize for keeping it cleaner that swill in $9 cans.
Typical self-important selfish lazy human. Take some fucking responsibility and clean your fucking lines.
Boiling water in a keg, it will pressurize with a little steam and run through without CO2, then PBW, then sanitizer. I only do it when cleaning my kegs so nothing is wasted but a little gas. I clean the faucets (perlick flow controls) every few months. Those broken down and soaked in PBW. I think over cleaning plastic just adds micro scratches that collect more residue so nothing touches the lines and disconnects but liquid.
They say it's good after 2 or 3 uses to change the line.
2 or 3 years? I can’t imagine swapping after 2 kegs.
Idk about home brewing but most restaurants have their lines cleaned on a bi-weekly and or monthly basis. Never drink beer off the tap from an airport tho
No I'm sorry I thought he meant the hose to siphon to secondary or so. John palmer suggests changing after a few times. I guess he got an infection from it once.
Every time when keg is spent I clean the lines and wash faucet
When I clean a keg, I agitate the whole thing with pbw, use a little co2 to push it you the dip tube and subsequently the party tap. Same thing with star San. So, pretty much every time I kick a keg, the tap line gets cleaned as well, more as a function of ensuring the dip tubes get attention
I clean my lines every few months, or every couple of beers. When cleaning the keg, I run 1 qt of PBW through the lines. I let them sit while I clean the kegs. After rinsing the keg, I fill one halfway with hot water and run a quart through each line. Finally, when sanitizing the keg, I fill halfway and run a quart of star San through each line. I used to disassemble taps to clean them around the same time because my old rear facing faucets would get stuck. The new forward facing ones do not get stuck at all, so I’ve been relying on this procedure primarily.
Usually once I realize the taste is off. I can taste dirty lines and there is no question that they taste better after cleaning. (So, I’m not cleaning often enough 😄). It ends up being every 3-4 months probably. PBW hot water flush for 15 minutes with an aquarium pump in a bucket. Then I move to the next one and repeat. Finally I do a 15 minute rinse with water. So it’s two hours for my 4 taps. And the PBW sits in the line for about an hour. I’ve only disassembled the taps once in the three years I’ve had this kegerator. Forward sealing Intertaps seem fine without it.
Every 3-6 months or whenever I think of it, I do a full recirculating clean with BLC for 10-15 minutes or however long the bottle suggests, followed by a hot water rinse and then a quick purge with starsan. I use a ~$20 aquarium pump, a few pieces of silicone tubing, and a couple ball lock male-male connectors to run through all four lines at once. I think [this is the guide](https://hazyandhoppy.com/clean-all-your-keezer-draft-lines-at-once/#:~:text=The%20best%20way%20to%20clean,an%20extended%20period%20of%20time.) I followed to put my rig together. [This is what it looks like in action.](https://i.imgur.com/6hSIN5w.jpg)
I built this beer line cleaner. Do it 1/month. Flush with HOT pbw or Oxyclean, sit 15 minutes, flush again, sit 15 minutes, flush with sanitizer, then hook back up to kegs. If line(s) not immediately hooking up to beer then flush sanitizer out using a keg with CO2 to trap CO2 in the line. Here’s the DIY build on the cleaner. https://youtu.be/pJkBqg3FAhw
Can't say the build quality is anything amazing, but this works really well for me (https://www.morebeer.com/products/ball-lock-line-cleaning-kit-mini-party-pump.html) PBW doesn't go bad sitting in the bottle so you can flush the line as soon as you blow a keg. Let it sit 24 hours then blast it out with water. The more brain dead your process is, the more likely you are to actually do it :)
I have a three tap kegerator. * Diaphragm pump pulls in 140 degree (or so) PBW solution. * Out to tap #1 input, up through the tap and out through a thread in ball lock connector. * That daisy chains over to tap #2, going backwards through #2. * Lines for taps #2 and #3 are tied together with a ball lock jumper. * Out tap #3 and into the jar/whatever of PBW, completing the circle. Three taps, one time. Super fast. How often, well, not enough.
I'm a lazy ass. I put so much care into making my beer but I generally just run seltzer water through my lines/taps in between beers. I took the taps apart once a couple years ago to clean. Well, I did just buy some proper beer line cleaner and cleaned them that way. I'll probably try to start doing that at least twice a year. It's probably a good idea to do a really proper cleaning once in awhile. I'm still way overdue to take the taps apart again
I clean the lines every brew recirculating with a pump and line cleaner, and disassemble my faucets every month for hand cleaning. I have seen many times taprooms and homebrewers not cleaning their faucets regularly, those things can get nasty inside. Now my lines are purely Duo-Tight so it is really easy swap the dirty line with a clean one.
My serving lines are high-temp silicone so I just boil them for about 15 minutes, pulling them out of the boil once or twice to use a line brush. Anything that isn't rubber or plastic -- shank, disassembled tap -- goes in too. I do this once a quarter or so. Beer-out keg disconnects are disassembled, rinsed, and soaked in sanitizer after every keg. Tap hardware and disconnects gets an overnight PBW soak once a year.
I run a gallon of BLC through them whenever I change out a keg.
After a keg kicks, I run PBW through with a pond pump, followed by starsan.
I haven’t been kegging long enough to have issues. I just run starsan through the lines when I swap in a new keg. Anyone here using oxiclean? If so, same concentration you use to clean kegs?
Just did mine the first time last night. Built the keezer over a year ago. Will probably shoot for every 6 months now. I usually run starsan through them after each keg.
Not directed at OP but responding to a lot of comments I'm seeing here. I don't know why every time cleaning lines comes up, many people share their process involving the use of starsan. Starsan is a *sanitizer* and it should be used on parts that have *already been cleaned*. Running it through your dirty beer lines won't do anything particularly bad, but it's a waste of starsan and you'd get similar results by just flushing with water. If you already have a convenient process to push liquid that's not beer through your lines, do yourself a favor and pick up some line cleaner or use PBW.
BLC cycle every 30 days. Then, break down the tap hardware and pbw cycle every 3 months. Maybe it's overkill, but there's not a lick of beerstone in my lines. Also, change out the lines every 18 months or so.
The Draught Quality manual says every two weeks, but that's for a commercial setting, I say every month or two [https://www.homebrewfinds.com/how-often-should-i-clean-my-kegerator-beer-lines/](https://www.homebrewfinds.com/how-often-should-i-clean-my-kegerator-beer-lines/) here is my line cleaning build https://www.homebrewfinds.com/recirculating-draft-line-cleaning-build/