I bought a house last year with a wet bar and built in kegerator in the basement. I put in a keg last summer to test it out and it was very foamy and tasted off... assumed it was dirty/infected and I haven't touched it since. I know the lines need to be cleaned but I don't know the first thing about all the pieces of the puzzle such as the lines, regulators, settings, etc... Should I just start from scratch with the lines and get new ones? I am scared to screw something up by disconnecting things without knowing what's what. Anyone have a good link that shows how to put new lines in and set the system up properly?
This is a decent starting place: http://www.angelfire.com/ks2/beer/homekeg.html New lines are probably the simplest way to get up to speed and don't be afraid to buy twice as much as what you think you need. Here is a little more detail on line balancing than the above link: http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/ Once you get an understanding of these details there is no reason you shouldn't be enjoying the bar.
That looks like a good article(s). Thanks for sending along! When I look in the kegerator it just looked daunting to me. I'm going to get this thing ramped up for summer, though!
You should buy some beer line cleaner (BLC) to clean the faucet, shank and coupler. Buy one of the pump bottles you attach to the shank when the faucet is taken off the shank (you will need a faucet wrench). Disassemble the entire faucet for cleaning. Ditch the beer lines, new ones are cheap and easy to change. No need to get rid of the CO2 lines, they will be fine.
