Dispensing Line cleansing procedures

[Sulfur]

Ok, the previous brewpub I worked at contracted out to do dispensing lines so I have little experience cleaning them. What would be a recommended regimen? How about running caustic, then acid through the lines, maybe then Oxine as a sanitizer? Or better yet an mineral acid/peracetic acid mix?

[jarviw]

Micromatic has tons of resources on this subject...

http://www.micromatic.com/beer-questions/how-often-clean-equipment-aid-61.html

my understanding is that DO NOT use hot caustic on your draft line... Hot caustic will damage the draft line and skin the interior lining off.

[Sulfur]

tks

tks for the link...

[brewingnewbie]

has anyone seen any documentation that hot caustic (2 oz/gallon, 170 degrees) will eat away at the beer lines?

[Bill Madden]

I work for AC Beverage part time and we use warm caustic to clean lines, think faucet temp. I would say that ~170 degrees F would be too hot, I would not want to handle that either. That high a temp. could lead to damaging the lines especially if cleaning with a pump at pressure, very dangerous as well if a fitting were to come loose.

[lhall]

Agreed on not to hot a temperature, probably no more than 140 F. I had a situation where I used caustic that was too hot. Luckily I caught the hose swelling before it burst, but it swelled out so much it changed the restriction of the hose and everything poured too fast and foamy after that. I ended up having to replace the draft line to fix it.

[brewbonghm]

Regular cleaning of the draft lines is the most important thing, if you have to use strong caustics at high temperatures you are not cleaning w/great enough frequency. Most beer line cleaners are mostly potassium hydroxide and the recommended temperature is no where near 170. Regularly disassembling all of your faucets and keg couplers (as well as "beer misers", pumps, etc.) and giving them a thorough cleaning is a good idea because that is where your beer "tumbles" and that is where "schmoo" usually lives.

[Sulfur]

experiences

I've settled down to a 1-2 week regimen (max 2weeks) between line cleaning. It depends also IMO on the beer in the line i.e. a strong, highly hopped beer line will be less susceptible to contamination than will a light beer line.

I vary cleansing procedures, sometimes using caustic followed by acid, sometimes using simply Peracetic acid.

Agree with taking everything apart as well, including the beer distributors if you have several taps from the same tank.

I have not yet used a chlorinated caustic and am wary about doing so due to bad experiences at a prior place I worked at with a medicinal flavor in a Doppelbock. It seemed to occur in conjunction with line cleansing, although it also could have been the slower throughput.

Also a good idea to document all to CYA.