Efficient Homebrewing: How to Clean Keg Beer Lines

Introduction

When using a kegging system at home, it's important that beer lines are kept clean to ensure no infections or off flavours develop within the lines themselves. One of the problems many home brewers face when cleaning lines is they need to waste alot of gas - filling a 19L keg with cleaning solution then pressuring it to force the cleaning solution through the beer lines is inefficient - requiring alot of water and gas to do so.

In this post we'll outline the process we use - which requires a couple of (cheap) extra parts, but makes it much quicker and more efficient to get your beer lines cleaned.

What You'll Need

• Your beer line(s) with a liquid disconnect on at least one end

• An empty soft drink bottle (with standard 'coke style' PCO 1881 style thread)

• A PCO 1881 carbonation cap tee piece (available from Kegland - here)

• A short piece of silicone tubing to use as a dip tube in the empty soft drink bottle

• 2 x carbonation caps (available from Kegland - here)

• A CO2 gas cylinder with regulator and gas disconnect

Step-by-Step Process

1. Prepare the Soft Drink Bottle

The PCO 1881 carbonation cap tee piece can convert any soft drink bottle with a compatible screw thread into a mini keg. Fill the bottle with cleaning solution and attach the carbonation cap tee piece.

2. Attach the Dip Tube

One of the carbonation caps on the tee piece will have the silicone hose attached as a dip tube. The other carbonation cap will be used to attach gas to pressurize the bottle.

3. Connect the Beer Line

Connect the beer line you wish to clean onto the top carbonation cap (the one with the dip tube attached).

4. Pressurize the Bottle

Connect your CO2 gas to the other carbonation cap and add pressure. You won't need a lot—5 psi should be sufficient. Once fully assembled, it should look like the picture below.

Easy beer line cleaning solution - fully assembled

5. Clean the Beer Line

If the other end of your liquid line has a disconnect, depress the poppet with your finger to allow the liquid to flow through. If you don't have a disconnect, the gas will start forcing the liquid out through the line as soon as you attach it, cleaning the line in the process.

Additional Tips

Separate Bottles for Different Solutions

Given the low cost of the equipment, you can easily set up separate bottles for cleaning (using PBW), sanitizing (using StarSan or StellaSan), and rinsing (using plain water). Simply change the gas and liquid disconnects over to each bottle as needed.

Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness

This method is much quicker, easier, and uses less gas to pressurize a small soft drink bottle compared to a full size keg.

Conclusion

This is just one of many ways that you can cheaply and effectively clear the beer lines for your keg system.

How do you clean your beer lines? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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