I have always filled my cornies with PBW and ran it through the dip tube. I then allow it to soak for 2-3 days. I have read where some just rinse with hot water and scrub.
There is no way I can fit my arm inside the cornie and it does seem like a bit of a wast going through 5 gallons of PBW for each cornie.
I would like to know how other clean their cornies
I have a lot of turnaround as far as beer and cornies. I honestly can’t imagine doing what others say they do on this forum to clean their cornies each and every time. If I don’t suspect any sort of infection at all from a previous batch, then I usually open up my corny, put very hot tap water in, close, shake around, open and pour back out. If this doesn’t get all the gunk out then I will scrub with a non-scratch pad. After one or both of these, I take 1 gallon of boiling water, pour it in, close the top, put it under serving pressure, shake the hell out of it and send some of this water out each dip tube. Then I just stack it in my clean area. When I am ready to refill, i dump out the now cool water and proceed with the fill. This method has not failed me yet and it takes almost no time. In a sense, it’s a bit like a mini autoclave, with the combination of the heat, moisture and pressure. From a microbiological POV, I am not sure that this amount of heat or pressure is prolonged enough to truly autoclave, but again, until it proves me otherwise I am sticking to it, cuz its just too damn easy. I am open to what others think of this method as well?
I’d at least sanitize it prior to using it.
I do exactly what you do. I usually have a few dirty cornies around and let hot PBW soak in each one for 30 minutes, then transfer into another, etc.
I then rinse X 3 with warm water and fill up with StarSan. Then when I transfer it into the next corny it leaves the corny clean, sanitized, and filled with pressurized CO2. Not a molecule of oxygen in sight.
Cheers
[quote=“TG”]Not a molecule of oxygen in sight.[/quote]Unless you flush with CO2 for an hour or so, there’s at least one molecule of O2 in there. 
I put a gallon of hot water in the cornie, add a heaping tablespoon of PBW, shake to dissolve, then top off with hose water and depress the beer poppet to allow it to fill. Soak for 24+ hours, remove the beer post, and use a hose brush to make sure there’s no buildup in the diptube. Rinse and leave it upside down to drain and dry.
I have 21 kegs so I do not like to do unnecessary stuff. I rinse out all the junk immediately after emptying and then fill with 130F tap water. Press the poppit so that the dip tube is filled. Soak for a few hours; let a little water run out the dip tube poppit; drain keg and put away with lid sealed. When it is time for filling, I fill with Iodophor and let soak for 5 minutes and then siphon to the next keg and so on. I run a dip tube brush down the dip tubes every other fill.
[quote=“Shadetree”][quote=“TG”]Not a molecule of oxygen in sight.[/quote]Unless you flush with CO2 for an hour or so, there’s at least one molecule of O2 in there.
I put a gallon of hot water in the cornie, add a heaping tablespoon of PBW, shake to dissolve, then top off with hose water and depress the beer poppet to allow it to fill. Soak for 24+ hours, remove the beer post, and use a hose brush to make sure there’s no buildup in the diptube. Rinse and leave it upside down to drain and dry.[/quote]I completely fill it up with StarSan and push it out through the beer-out post with CO2. So yeah, maybe one molecule of oxygen might come out of the StarSan.
[quote=“TG”]I completely fill it up with StarSan and push it out through the beer-out post with CO2. [/quote]Sorry, didn’t make the connection between the fill with StarSan and then moving it to another cornie with CO2 - that’s a great way to get rid of 99.99999% of the O2!
Fill entire keg with very hot tap water and 2-3 tbsp of PBW. Press the poppet so the solution goes up into the dip tube. Soak for 30-60 minutes, drain (possibly into another vessel that I need to clean as well… another keg, primary, secondary) and then fill keg again with cold water and 1 oz of Starsan, allow to sit for 10-15 mins, drain (again, possibly into another vessel). My kegs never sit empty. If I have an empty keg, I rack a beer from secondary into the keg immediately. If I ever see anything stubborn in the keg after the long PBW soak (which is almost never), I can reach in there with a towel and attempt to scrub it. I can barely get my arm into the hatch but wiping/scrubbing is tricky. Also, when I have time I will take the filled keg of PBW or Starsan and run that through my 4 draft lines to clean and sanitize them as well. Cheers.
After rinsing, I make up about a gallon of very hot alkali solution (I really like CMC, but PBW’s almost the same thing), seal the keg, and shake for maybe 30 seconds. Let stand 2-3 min, then depress the liquid poppet to get some into the dip tube, invert the keg, and let stand for 2-3 min. Rinse thoroughly, then repeat the process with sanitizer. Hook the keg up and force the sanitizer out to sanitize the line and tap. The whole process takes at most 10 min per keg. Generally I’ll wait until I have at least two to clean so that I can reuse the chemicals.
ETA: I break down the keg and soak all the posts, poppets, o-rings, etc. in alkali cleanser every 3-5 uses.
I spray the yeast cake out and then run them through the washer.
http://www.aleiens.com/profiles/blogs/c ... keg-washerI miss my keg washer. 
I break mine down every time. I pop the main gasketed opening and rinse it in the hottest water my water heater produces (hotter than I can stand to the touch), I take off the in and out posts and poppet valves and put them in hot water, along with the “in” tube. I pull the dip tube and rinse it in the running hot water. I rinse the keg in the hot water multiple times (basically a gallon or two at a rinse), with the water alternately running out of the two threaded post holes. Then I put one ounce of Star San in the keg and fill it with water. After letting it sit for a minute or two (or however long it takes for me to get back to it), I pour the Star San out the post holes and main gasketed hole and into a five gallon bucket, leaving a little Star San in the bottom of the keg. I then soak the posts and the main cover and gasket, along with the dip tubes in the Star San in the bucket. I then reassemble and put the keg on CO2 and bleed off the CO2 several times until it appears from the pressure regulator that the keg is filled with CO2. The last thing I do before storage is to push the “out” poppet and let some Star San spew up through the post. I store the keg this way until it is ready to be filled, at which time I push the “out” poppet and let the rest of the Star San spew up and out of the keg through the “out” dip tube. Take the main cover off and fill with brew, carbonate and enjoy.
I will add a step to the initial rinse, by cleaning with PBW or Easy Clean, if the keg sat with beer in it for an unusually long time (like with a heavier beer on tap - my lighter ones normally get consumed quickly enough to clean up easily with just rinsing and sanitizing.)
Once a year, I’ll add 1 heaping spoon of oxyclean and fill the keg to the top with 130 degree water and let soak for about an hour, pressing the poppet to fill the dip tubes. Rinse well repeatedly and then sanitize with idophor before filling. The rest of the year I rinse really well with hot water as soon as the keg is empty and store that way until it is ready to be refilled, using the idophor sanitizing procedure before re-filling. Every few years I take the kegs apart (including removing the poppet valves) for the oxyclean soaking, and when I reassemble I’ll put keg lube on the poppets and gaskets.
I rinse them out when I kick them. When I have a couple, I disassemble the posts, take out the diptubes, and pump Oxyclean back and forth. Then, I store them upside-down. Before filling, I’ll StarSan the hell out of the posts, dip tube, lid, interior, and exterior. Then, I’ll reassemble the posts and rack.
Rinse out with warm/hot water. Mix up a 2 gallon batch of Oxyclean in the keg and let dissolve. Shake a bit and hook up to the beverage and gas lines. Run a little through the lines to clean them. Dump, rinse and fill with 2 gallon mix of Star San. Shake a bit and hook up to the beverage and gas lines. Run some through the lines to rinse out Oxyclean. Remove dump and let drain. Refill with beer and put on gas. If I suspect a lot of gunk in the lines or it has sat for a while I will disassemble and clean the seals and tubes first, then do above.
[quote=“a10t2”]After rinsing, I make up about a gallon of very hot alkali solution (I really like CMC, but PBW’s almost the same thing), seal the keg, and shake for maybe 30 seconds. Let stand 2-3 min, then depress the liquid poppet to get some into the dip tube, invert the keg, and let stand for 2-3 min. Rinse thoroughly, then repeat the process with sanitizer. Hook the keg up and force the sanitizer out to sanitize the line and tap.
ETA: I break down the keg and soak all the posts, poppets, o-rings, etc. in alkali cleanser every 3-5 uses.[/quote]
+1 pretty much the same method I use.
Most of the time when they kick they get left with beer in them for an unknown amount of time, so before refilling they are taken completely apart and get a brief soak and scrub with PBW and a few different brushes including diptubes, and then a few minutes of StarSan.
When my kegs are empty I unhook from the hoses and leave them sealed. When it’s time to fill I rinse the kegs with a bit of tap water and refill. I have never taken any of my kegs apart and have never had an issue, it is difficult to infect a finished beer…alcohol and hops do a good job of keeping infections away.
I use “Cleaning Method One: The New Way” as described at:
http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/in ... t#cleaningI add a really, really tiny bit of keg lube to the o-rings each time (just a light film really by putting a tiny bit on my index finger then running the o-ring round and round between index finger and thumb), before adding those parts to the bowl holding iodophor solution. I buy most o-rings in bulk for cheap from McMaster Carr so that I can change them out no hassle if necessary, and I brush out the dip tube and rinse it prior to adding it back into the keg before the initial brewery wash soaking, using either PLC or homemade PBW.
The Bodensatz bucket method also cleans and sanitizes the outside keg surfaces at least as far down as the rubber collar. I usually wait until I have two kegs to wash before I do this. I also push the sanitizer through my beer line and tap, if it hasn’t been put in use to service a different keg.
I also like the idea of shaking the keg with the brewery wash inside.
