Cleaning Corny Kegs - is water vinegar bleach mix ok?

[oinkely]

Hi All,

can anyone tell me is it OK to clean my corny keg (new to me but smells like 7UP) with homemade sanitiser? - 20L water 30 ml, vinegar & 30 ml thin bleach?

thanks

[Leann ull]

w5 soak for an hour or two good shake and then starsan

[DEMPSEY]

The water bleach is only for sterilizing and not cleaning. Same as starsan.

[oinkely]

thanks folks,

@ ciderhead - what W5? - we have a tub of something or other from lidl with a bright yellow lid.  It's a powder of some sort - would that do the trick?

[Leann ull]

thanks folks,

@ ciderhead - what W5? - we have a tub of something or other from lidl with a bright yellow lid.  It's a powder of some sort - would that do the trick?

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php?topic=8317.0

[oinkely]

Thanks all,

going to get stuck into cleaning the cornies shortly

[Taf]

You can get beer line brush's from hop and grape, which I find invaluable for cleaning the beer out tube, and obviously for cleaning beer line. Surprised none of the Irish retailers stock them. 

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

If you are careful, you can refill the corny without sanitising, the dregs need to be compatible with the new beer.

[biertourist]

You CAN of course use it, but remember that bleach is stainless's arch nemesis- bleach will slowly pit stainless.  Extended soaking is a particularly bad idea.


Personally, I'd avoid bleach and homebrewing equipment as a general rule (use too much and you'll taste it for ever) but for stainless equipment you REALLY shouldn't use it.  And definitely not if you're going to soak your stainless equipment in your sanitizer.

[biertourist]

You can get beer line brush's from hop and grape, which I find invaluable for cleaning the beer out tube, and obviously for cleaning beer line. Surprised none of the Irish retailers stock them.

Oxyclean or the horiffically expensive PBW works great at getting the crud out- just put some in your keg, apply a tiny bit of CO2 pressure and then force the liquid through the dip tube and your tubing and tap - you clean everything in one go.

I pump a bit of oxyclean through the dip tube and tap and tubing and then rinse thoroughly with water and switch to my semi-permanent water+star san solution keg and finish with flushing everything through with StarSan.  I generally then store my unused beer line and tap with starsan in it.  The first 1/8 - 1/4 pint of a new keg gets thrown out as it contains star san and a bit of yeast / other things that settle to the bottom of the keg. 


Adam

[Qs]

Do you leave the oxy to sit in the line for a while? From watching it in carboys it doesn't seem to do much unless its left for a while. And what temp water do you use for it and then to rinse?

[biertourist]

Do you leave the oxy to sit in the line for a while? From watching it in carboys it doesn't seem to do much unless its left for a while. And what temp water do you use for it and then to rinse?

I leave the oxy a while but you never want to leave it for a long time because if the liquid starts evaporating it leaves a hard to remove mineraly crust on everything.  What temp?  -"hot" from my "hot" tap... (however hot that is)



Adam

[Leann ull]

Every other keg I soak screaming hot water about 1/4 of keg and w5 and put lid on and shake the shit out out of it after 20 mins soak, 10 mins each end I use a tap and drain out the dip tube then lid off a massive high pressure hose rinse with water and repressurise and again out through drain tube
Then star San and again out through drain tube.
Every other clean the keg gets stripped and full soak in cleaner again in very hot water and w5 or PBW and then starsan
I rinse as much starsan out as I can and then big purge and store with co2

[beerfly]

W5 also relies on enzymes. Works best at about 40c. I would normally fill (or half fill if you turn half way through the soaking) add a scoop or two of W5 hand leave for a day or two then rinse and do another rinse with starsan.
As for how long you can leave an icu cleaner, the longer it is there the more deposits build up, if you get them they can be removed by a strong acid soak, say twice the amount of starsan you would usually use.

[Leann ull]

Nice tip on the starsan how long would you leave that as I thought starsan ate stainless?