I just polished off my first batch of kegged beer and have another batch ready to transfer to that keg. I’m looking for procedure recommendations. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Disconnect gas line; Bleed off pressure; Open lid
Dump remaining beer/sludge; Spray out any remaining sludge with hot water
Pour in 1 gallon StarSan solution; Close lid; Shake keg to coat insides
Reconnect gas line; Dispense the StarSan through the beer line
Disconnect gas line; Bleed off pressure; Open lid
Dump any remaining StarSan
Siphon in beer
Close lid; Reconnect gas line
Pressurize and bleed multiple times to purge the headspace of oxygen
I pretty much do what you proposed. After I add the sanitizer I flip it over and pull the prv and depress the gas poppit to sanitize those parts too. You might also run some sanitizer through your kegerator beer line while you’re at it. One extra step I do is purge the keg with CO2 just before transferring. I transfer my beer through the diptube using a liquid connection attached to my siphon.
[quote=“Brick1083”]I just polished off my first batch of kegged beer and have another batch ready to transfer to that keg. I’m looking for procedure recommendations. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Disconnect gas line; Bleed off pressure; Open lid
Dump remaining beer/sludge; Spray out any remaining sludge with hot water
Pour in 1 gallon StarSan solution; Close lid; Shake keg to coat insides
Reconnect gas line; Dispense the StarSan through the beer line
Disconnect gas line; Bleed off pressure; Open lid
Dump any remaining StarSan
Siphon in beer
Close lid; Reconnect gas line
Pressurize and bleed multiple times to purge the headspace of oxygen[/quote]
Looks fine to me. Since it has not been open to air yet it should still be pretty sanitary in there. As long as there is nothing that won’t come out with a quick spray down I think you are OK just using the Star San and no cleaner.
I guess I’m not expecting much of anything to be stuck on the inside of the keg. At least nothing that wouldn’t rinse out with a little water and sanitizer.
That’s what I was thinking.
Good idea. This probably would’ve occured to me as I was sanitizing.
Maybe I’m lazy, but I just rinse the keg after use, fill with a half gallon of sanitizer, and pressurize until ready for use. I typically deep clean the keg after it has been filled twice. Cleaning includes me taking the keg apart and re-greasing the rings.
Maybe I over do it but I break the keg down each time and soak the keg and parts in pbw. Give the keg and dip tube a scrub. Rinse everything well. Reassemble and pressurize so it’s ready to fill next time. When I fill, I break it down again and soak in starsan before reassembling.
I’m with CCM. I take the whole thing apart and clean and sanitize every part, each time. It only takes about half an hour. A chemical sanitizer like Star San isn’t effective on a dirty surface. Even if the keg hasn’t been contaminated there is still yeast in there and some of it is probably hiding in the crud. If you aren’t using the same yeast it could affect your beer. Also when you kegged your first beer the keg was sanitized, it wasn’t sterilized. There’s a big difference there. Over time I suspect that the population of undesirables in there would go up.
I just don’t think it’s worth it to chance ruining what may be the best beer ever by cutting corners at packaging time.
[quote=“mattscott”]I’m with CCM. I take the whole thing apart and clean and sanitize every part, each time. It only takes about half an hour. A chemical sanitizer like Star San isn’t effective on a dirty surface. Even if the keg hasn’t been contaminated there is still yeast in there and some of it is probably hiding in the crud. If you aren’t using the same yeast it could affect your beer. Also when you kegged your first beer the keg was sanitized, it wasn’t sterilized. There’s a big difference there. Over time I suspect that the population of undesirables in there would go up.
I just don’t think it’s worth it to chance ruining what may be the best beer ever by cutting corners at packaging time.[/quote]
Actually, in a podcast, Charlie Tally states that a little dirt is not a problem with StarSan.
Yeah I’m also in the rinse it out really well with hot water use Star San and refill it club. After a few uses I’ll disassemble and clean. I have never had a problem doing it this way and I used to rip everything apart.
I like to put about a gallon of PBW in, shake it up, run through my lines, rinse, then run sanitizer through. I break my kegs down every once in a while. And every now and then I scrub the kegs with a brush and diptube brush.
