Beer Line Cleaning Kit: Get Your Beer Right

Beer line cleaning is important and essential if you want to experience great draft beer. A beer line cleaning kit makes this possible. It includes a hand pump, spanner wrench, cleaning brush, and alkaline cleaning chemical.

This blog post will discuss the importance of having a beer line cleaning kit on hand, how to use it, and how often it's needed for your personal kegerator.

Parts In a Beer Line Cleaning Kit

• Spanner Wrench
• Hand Pump
• Cleaning Brush
• Cleaning Chemical

Spanner Wrench

A spanner wrench is used to tighten or loosen the beer faucet on your kegerator. A spanner wrench is different from a regular wench because it includes a notch on the end of the wrench that fits a faucet coupling to tighten, loosen.

Cleaning Brush

A cleaning brush is included in some beer line cleaning kits and not others, but either way, you should have one. The cleaning brush is used to clean the inside of your beer faucet when you take it apart.

Cleaning Chemical

Alkaline Cleaning Chemical is a chemical that can dissolve mineral build up in the kegerator line and faucet. It will also help get rid of any organic compounds like bacteria, yeast and mold.  Every quarter an acid clean should be used on top of an alkaline cleaner to get rid of beer stones.

Hand Pump

A hand pump is an important part of a beer line cleaning kit because it will allow you to push water and chemical inside the kegerator lines so that they are clean. The pump also comes with attachments to the coupling fitting,

Steps For Cleaning a Kegerator

• Untap the coupler or sanke inside the kegerator. Turn the coupler counter-clockwise until it's loose.
• Turn-Off the gas at the primary regulator
• Open the beer faucet to drain the remaining beer out of the lines
• Remove the Beer faucet with a spanner wrench by turning the coupling clockwise
• Take the hand pump and fill with water.
• Attach the hand pump onto the beer coupling. Pump out the beer in the beer lines into a bucket. You may need to take off the beer not on the coupler so you can pump water and chemical through the lines.
• Once the beer is pumped through the line. Add appropriate cleaning chemical to hand pump. Follow the instructions on the label, and pump through the beer lines until it flows into the bucket
• Let the alkaline solution sit in the lines for 20 minutes. This is called a static clean.
• While waiting... take the faucet apart and put into cleaning solution. Let soak for 15 minutes. Rinse with water and put back together
• Check the D-sankey inside the kegerator. Scrub the outside to get rid of yeast, mold or bacteria that could be growing on the outside of the coupler. Check the beer and air lines as well.
• Fill hand pums with water and continue to flush out chemical in the beer line for about 15 mins. Check the PH of the water with PH paper or PH reader to make sure all the chemical is rinsed out, and the water is neutral.
• Re-attach the faucet to the beer tower, and tighten with spanner wrench
• Re-attach the d coupler to the keg
• Turn gas back on
• Pour beer through the lines.
• Cheers!

How Often Should You Clean Your Kegerator?

According to the Brewers Association you're supposed to clean your beer lines every 2 weeks. This is for commercial businesses. But at home I would recommend cleaning after every keg use. Having a beer line cleaning kit is an essential part to maintaining clean beer lines so you can enjoy great tasting draft beer!

With this guide you can ensure you will always have great tasting draft beer on tap. For other beer cleaning methods check this out.

For common beer trouble shooting questions here's a guide to use.

Cheers!