How To Clean Kegerator Lines Properly
Kegerators are becoming even more popular today. Who doesn't like fresh draft beer dispensing in their home? From under counter kegerators, to your standard man cave kegerator. Draft beer is extremely popular out here in the Northwest. However, maintaining the cleanliness of the beer line is sometimes an overlooked part of owning a kegerator. After this post, you will understand all you need to know about how to clean kegerator lines.
How Often Should You Clean Kegerator Lines?
Really it depends on the person. In the commercial industry, every 2 weeks is the standard to clean beer lines. The Brewers Association recommends this timing. However, at home, I would recommend it after every keg use. Another time might be if you are leaving on vacation for a while. It would be smart to clean the lines before leaving. Unattended beer systems are a magnet for yeast, bacteria, and mold.
How to Clean Kegerator Lines
- Shut off the gas to your coupler or tavern head. Find your primary regulator and turn off the gas.
- Take your coupler and untap it from your keg.
- Find a crescent wrench and take off the beer nut where the product line is going into. Take out the beer washer and put the product line into a small bucket. Can also use a coupler coupling if you have one.
- Take a Spanner wrench and loosen the faucet. Turn clockwise to loosen.
- Mix a solution 2-3 % of caustic in this small bucket for a coupler and beer faucet. Read the directions on the bottle for the right steps to take when mixing solution. Remember add chemical to water.
- Take the beer faucet apart and place into this solution bucket. I usually put the beer coupler in this bucket too with the alkaline cleaner. Let these soak in the cleaning solution for 20 mins.
- Make another 2-3 % solution for your pump bottle. 3 % solution if it's been awhile from your last clean.
- Connect the one end to where the faucet use to be. Make sure there's a beer washer before you tighten the connection.
- Pump solution through the kegerator line until it runs out into the bucket. Once all the beer is out and the solution is packed in the kegerator beer line. Let the solution sit in the beer line for 20 minutes.
- Take the beer coupler and beer faucet parts out of the bucket with caustic and rinse parts thoroughly. Use gloves for this. Rinse off and use brush for parts and outside of coupler. Again rinse with cold water
- Reassemble the beer faucet.
- Undo the beer attachment and pump. Rinse out bottle. Add clean water and flush caustic out of kegerator. Use PH strips or PH reader to verify cleaner is out of the kegerator. Looking for PH neutral of 7
- Take off the cleaning hand pump reattach faucet and beer coupler.
- Tap the keg and tighten beer faucet. When this is done turn the gas back on to pour beer through system.
Cleaning Kegerator Video
Here's a video below to go over what I talked about above. The Technician uses a liquid cleaner and recommends just a 5-minute clean. But I advise around 20 mins to let the cleaning solution do its work with a static clean.
What's In a Kegerator Cleaning Kit
A kegerator cleaning kit comes with a few important pieces. One is the hand pump. Two is the cleaning solution. This can be either a liquid or powder. Three is a cleaning brush that's used to clean out the faucet opening and inside the faucet. Four is a spanner or beer wrench. This is used to loosen and tighten beer faucets on a beer tower. These are the pivotal pieces to a cleaning kit.
Where to Find A Kegerator Cleaning Kit
There are many different cleaning kits out there. One that I recommend is this kegerator cleaning kit from Micro Matic. It uses a powder cleaner instead of a liquid. This cleaning kit is designed for a kegerator and I recommend getting it if you are looking for a cleaning kit and currently don't have one.
