Hi all,
We're a new brewery and bought ~200 used kegs several months ago.We pulled a few random spears and discovered some BAD examples of beer stone and grime. So now we're pulling all the spears and trying different cleaning methods with a much smaller success rate than we were hoping. I'm hoping someone out there may have had a similar experience or may have an idea that we haven't tried. Here is what we've tried so far:
Premier 3 head automatic keg cleaner. 2oz Ultra Niter/gal H2O + 2mL X-Puma/gal H2O in first basin, maintained at 130F. 2oz Bru-R-Ez/gal H2O + .5oz Cir-Q-Late/gal H2O, started at 140F with no temp. maintenance but minimal temp. drop (~5F/hour) over time. 3rd basin of water for prerinse and sani dosing at end that was skipped b/c kegs would be opened afterwards. pH levels were checked after each cycle; almost no change over time.
Cycle consisted of
1) keg evacuation
2) 30 second water rinse with 10 second spear rinse
3) 5 minute acid rinse with 1 minute spear acid rinse
4) 5min alkaline rinse with 1min alkaline spear rinse
5)30s water rinse with 15 second spear rinse
6) remove kegs, pull spears and inspect inside
This gave us a ~20% success rate with kegs that were completely clean on the inside. We took the non-clean kegs and then power washed them as best we could with another ~20% success rate from that step. We also tried a carboy cleaner drill head before and after the power wash with very little effect (it sucked).
We are currently trying an overnight acid soak in a couple dirty kegs. ~30oz ultra niter / ~15gal H2O is the keg, mix started at ~120F but not temp. maintained. Our first trial helped out a very filthy keg but it still has a few good beer stone streaks. We then tried using the carboy cleaner drill head with again very little effect. Power washing after that helped some but it seems that the power washer head has to basically be touching the point of interest for any reasonable efficacy.
We've already put an order in for some new kegs and in the meantime we will be working through the kegs on hand at our current success rate to get some usable kegs.
After all this I've run out of ideas at the moment. Does anyone out there have an idea or some similar experience with a happy ending?
Cheers,
Rob
We're a new brewery and bought ~200 used kegs several months ago.We pulled a few random spears and discovered some BAD examples of beer stone and grime. So now we're pulling all the spears and trying different cleaning methods with a much smaller success rate than we were hoping. I'm hoping someone out there may have had a similar experience or may have an idea that we haven't tried. Here is what we've tried so far:
Premier 3 head automatic keg cleaner. 2oz Ultra Niter/gal H2O + 2mL X-Puma/gal H2O in first basin, maintained at 130F. 2oz Bru-R-Ez/gal H2O + .5oz Cir-Q-Late/gal H2O, started at 140F with no temp. maintenance but minimal temp. drop (~5F/hour) over time. 3rd basin of water for prerinse and sani dosing at end that was skipped b/c kegs would be opened afterwards. pH levels were checked after each cycle; almost no change over time.
Cycle consisted of
1) keg evacuation
2) 30 second water rinse with 10 second spear rinse
3) 5 minute acid rinse with 1 minute spear acid rinse
4) 5min alkaline rinse with 1min alkaline spear rinse
5)30s water rinse with 15 second spear rinse
6) remove kegs, pull spears and inspect inside
This gave us a ~20% success rate with kegs that were completely clean on the inside. We took the non-clean kegs and then power washed them as best we could with another ~20% success rate from that step. We also tried a carboy cleaner drill head before and after the power wash with very little effect (it sucked).
We are currently trying an overnight acid soak in a couple dirty kegs. ~30oz ultra niter / ~15gal H2O is the keg, mix started at ~120F but not temp. maintained. Our first trial helped out a very filthy keg but it still has a few good beer stone streaks. We then tried using the carboy cleaner drill head with again very little effect. Power washing after that helped some but it seems that the power washer head has to basically be touching the point of interest for any reasonable efficacy.
We've already put an order in for some new kegs and in the meantime we will be working through the kegs on hand at our current success rate to get some usable kegs.
After all this I've run out of ideas at the moment. Does anyone out there have an idea or some similar experience with a happy ending?
Cheers,
Rob
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