kegging questions

1. I do a disassembly ever time a keg empties . . . others will post they defer the complete break down. FTR, I do lots of dry hopping in the keg, which will have hop debris in the diptube/out-post. After an overnight soak in PBW and a good rinse, the keg gets starsan and is stored under pressure. I don't empty the starsan until just before the keg is filled again.
2. It's normal to have a lid not seal until you crank up the pressure, usually north of 4 psi. This is rarely if ever a problem. Keg lube is over rated (IMO), I rarely use it. The real purpose of the lubricant is to prevent the o-rings from cracking, typically more appropriate when they are in a dry environment (not a keg). But you can search this forum and find where others say they make all the difference in making a good seal.
3. I'm a big advocate of buying your spare parts before you need them. Things like o-rings and poppets become critical if you need one. There's usually a spare lid/diptube laying around my brewhouse . . . it would be great to never need them, but . . . (have you found a spare CO2 tank yet?)

Lots of keggers on this Forum, but check out Home Bar for some of the hardcore'ers.

 

What @PortLargo said.

I clean after every keg blows, lately I have been better about disassembling and doing new o-rings and checking poppets each time I clean (I had a couple cracked o-rings that led to very annoying leaks). After cleaning, I add a couple ounces of starsan and shake it around and then pressurize to about 20 psi, run a little of the starsan through a tap so the out tube is sanitized and then into storage. If I go to fill a keg and it hasn't held pressure, I put it in the "to be cleaned" pile.

You are going to want more o-rings. If you google, you can find the McMaster-Carr product numbers and just buy a bunch, way cheaper than the LHBS. I have been pretty happy with the universal poppets as well.

 

I use keg lube every time I keg a beer...I first hit the big o-ring...then rub the posts real good...I have 5 kegs I rotate with 3 or 4 max in the keezer...I have not replaced a seal in 2 years...It only takes a minute and gives me piece of mind and a good seal...

 

1CLEANING
a) I depressurize the keg and rinse with hot water to break all the crud out of the bottom. dump
b) I fill the keg 2/3 up and add a half scoop of Oxyclean. Soak for an hour
c) lock the lid and flip the keg upside down. Soak for an hour
d) pressurize the keg a little. Run some Oxyclean through your tap line. This will clean it.
e) dump and rinse with hot water thoroughly. I find this is rinsing and dumping the keg ~3 times. Not all the way full though.
f) fill keg with 1 gal of Star San solution. (6ml concentrate per gallon of water) and pressurize it.
g) run Star San through tap line. This will sanitize your tap line. Run a little extra to flush the Oxyclean out. Leave some Star San in the keg. Shake it all around and store for later use.

2 BREAK IT DOWN?
I notice most of my leaks come from my release valve and my lid. I'll check my poppits too, and tap them with a screw driver if they don't seat properly. Do I break my kegs all the way down? No. I'll replace the 5 o-rings about once a year instead. McMaster's Car Parts sells o-rings dirt cheap and are worth calling. I haven't checked lately, but I got mine for a few cents a peace.

3ADVICE
If you're going to run ball and pin lock kegs, you might want to invest in a gas manifold: http://www.morebeer.com/products/ga...-aj8q0-JzBwbtHAtl_PKjC3-Z5iN1YUWsQaAqgK8P8HAQ You can have 2 lines dedicated for ball and 2 lines for pin, (or more if you're lazy like me. You can have a work horse line for pressurizing and CO2 purging). You can also probably have some sort of swivel disconnect on your lines that will let you swap out your disconnects, if you want. Hell, you may as well color code them too. You can buy tinted line or you can use colored electrical tape, like I did.

 

For cleaning, I bring the empty keg into the shower. And then clean it. Your elbow wont fit all the way into the keg, but the adjustable shower nozzle works well to get all the debris out of the bottom. Bring the 7/8" wrench, brush etc. too. You should disassemble the posts every time. The liquid out post is going to have junk in it. I also scrub the outside, top, bottom etc. Used kegs are really not sanitary on the outside, and that annoys me. A plastic brush and regular bar soap does wonders. Then I let them dry. Yes, I am serious.

Try to keep the same posts on the keg. They all look similar but there are some variations from each brand, and they are almost interchangeable but not always.


Keg Lube. Not too often, once an O-ring is greased it stays that way for a while. Keg lube is messy. If you need grease to get a good seal your O-ring should be replaced. It does help though.

Star San.
Enough said.

Cheers.

 

I don't bother with keg lube anymore. I replace O-Rings so often that wearing out or tearing are not an issue. But if I didn't do that, I'd probably lube up to prevent tearing.

 

I give a hot water rinse to get all the debris off the bottom and get any residue off the walls. I tend to do a full breakdown every time unless I need the keg right away and the beers/yeasts were similar. If that is the case I run hot water through the diptube and out a picnic tap, then dump, add Startsan, fully purge, shake, then vacate all the Startsan through the picnic tap until cleared. For beer that I do a breakdown I drop all parts into the keg (lid, orings, poppets, posts) invert the dip tube to the inside, fill with hot water to the top, add my Sun/All Oxi type cleaner (clear). Let is soak until I can get to it again (maybe a few hours, maybe a few days). Good hot water rinse with a pressurized bottle rinser. Starsan spray on every part as I assemble, keg lube every oring, then 1/2 gallon Starsan into the keg. Pressurize, shake, purge, evacuate most through a picnic tap. Store sanitized, almost empty, and purged.

 

Do you bring keg lube into the shower with you and your keg?

 

stop...you're killing me

 

Why do you guys oppose efficiency and ingenuity? I brew. I shower. I clean my equipment, in the shower.
What?

 

Makes sense...get er done