Best way to clean Cornelius keg short of sandblasting

1

I need to know the best way to clean Cornelius kegs. It seems as though I alway get a licorice off taste whenever I use my kegs. The last attempt was I soaked them in b- Brite for 24 hours and still the flavor. Is there a better method or should I start with replacing them. I am so frustrated with making NyQuil flavored beer😭

2

Overnight soak with PBW followed by rinse with Starsan should do it.

What kind of water do you brew with?

3

Well water extremely hard with a lot of limestone

4

Have you cleaned your QDs and lines?

5

If you think it’s infection in the kegs you should disassemble everything and give it a good cleaning as above.

Could be more process related if it’s every beer you brew.

6

It goes against conventional wisdom as you’re not supposed to use bleach on SS. But bacteria can develop a biofilm impenetrable by PBW. Soak your keg in a bleach/water solution of 1:20 for 10 mins… NO MORE THAN 10 MINS. Rinse very well. Soak in PBW overnight. Rinse and sanitize it with star san. For your poppets, disconnects, and soft parts, after the soaking regimen boil them for 15 mins and sanitize.

You do not want to use this regimen very often as it can become corrosive over time.

As @dannyboy58 said, make sure you clean your tap lines.

This should take care of your infection.

1 Like
7

FULL dissassemble. Replace all O-rings. Everything else in warm PBW… that should do the trick.

1 Like
8

Thanks for the help. I will try all the above mentioned thoughts and also replace all the lines including the gas. If these ideas don’t work I guess I’ll need to replace.

9

I’ve had a couple of different infected batches and never had kegs that couldn’t be cleaned up. Plastic will carry some things over. SS cleaned and sanitized properly will not. If you still have the problem then most likely it’s process related and not the fault of the kegs.

edit: O-ring sale! O-rings on sale

10

Thanks for all the advice on the keg cleaning. I did the bleach, pbw, sanitizer, all new o- rings, replaced all the lines and cleaned the taps ( which I now realize can get quite nasty) and all is back to normal. Thanks again for the advice!