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  • Prepping new kegs

    I've never had the pleasure of getting new kegs before, so what do I need to do to get them ready to fill? The research I've done says to do a caustic cycle, passivate, and sanitize before using. My question is every SOP I've seen for passivation says to let the stainless air dry. Is that possible inside a keg? If not, how exactly do I passivate it?

  • #2
    Don't overthink...

    Depending on the maker, I'd skip the caustic and clean with an acid cleaner and go. Ask the keg manufacturer what you should do.
    Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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    • #3
      filling a brand new keg

      There is no way you would ever receive a new keg from a factory that was received ready to fill!! You can learn all about cleaning kegs from this website.

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      • #4
        Depending on the maker, I'd skip the caustic and clean with an acid cleaner and go. Ask the keg manufacturer what you should do.
        Glab you mentioned this Phil because I've been tempted to do this with our new kegs since they'll get a caustic wash the next time they come back through the brewery anyways. My only concern is our kegs came directly from China, so the recommendations were to give a quick caustic wash first to remove any residual manufacturing oils. The logic makes sense, but I'm wondering how important it really is and whether a proper acid cleaner would do the job just fine.

        Anymore thoughts on this?

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        • #5
          Do not buy kegs from China. Buy them from a reputable supplier and all you will need to do is sanitize and go.

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          • #6
            I highly recommend contacting Dana Johnson at Birko and talking to him. Very briefly, for new kegs you do a prewash with Ultra Niter (their nitric acid), don't rinse, then follow with BruREze or CellR Mastr, rinse, purge and sanitize. For regular washing you blend Ultra Niter with X Puma (a detergent additive), use that for wash in place of caustic, then rinse, purge and santi. I have been using this procedure and couldn't be happier.

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            • #7
              Do not buy kegs from China. Buy them from a reputable supplier and all you will need to do is sanitize and go.
              Yes, and pay ~20% more which in our case would have meant one less tank. I get what you're saying and yes you should always be careful when buying from China, but I'm never a fan of blanket statements like this. Despite realistic/semi-low expectations, I'm actually incredibly impressed w/ the quality of our kegs.

              Our brewhouse and cellar tanks are also Chinese built (through DME no less) and the quality is fantastic.
              Last edited by CharlosCarlies; 09-18-2014, 07:52 PM.

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              • #8
                Charlos, I would follow the keg manufacturer's recommendations to the letter. If they were made in China and have residual oils in them, then they should be caustic washed first. Acid will not sufficiently remove residual oils. That said, I just packaged with some new kegs from China and found that there was no residual oils in them and that the hot acid wash I gave them worked great. The acid wash remained sufficiently strong even after 200 kegs. And no oil sheen on the solution. But these Chinese kegs were impossible to remove the spear from--even though they were Micromatic spears. Be very cautious buying kegs that don't already have a solid international reputation. You should know that you get what you pay for.
                BrewCrewDude, please read other threads here about passivation. You do NOT air dry. That is urban legend. Or suburban, or whatever, legend. Don't worry too much about passivation. Instead, use a reputable supplier of kegs and ask them what to do. They would know best, right? If they cannot give you an exact procedure to use for their new kegs, then find another supplier! Best of luck!
                Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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