Pubkegs and... mold

[BrooksCooper_]

So, we are using 1/6bbl plastic Pubkegs with 1-use recyclable plastic bladders for now.

recently, we moved kegs of product from cold room #1 (under our control) to a friend's for short term storage while construciton things happen in our space.

When the Pubkegs left our space they'd been in there for 1 day to 4.5 weeks and were clean and sanitary.

Stored in friend-space over the past 3 weeks ALL developed visible mold on the shells. Some black mold, some fuzzy that looked like lacto or pedio but MOLD.

Before transporting to customers we cleaned the shells with bleach water but ?????

The sankey taps were filled with sani before being covered with tap covers and none were problematic but.. MOLD on the outside?

We rinse our kegs after filling. None of the stainless cooperage in the borrowed cooler had mold.

Do you use plastic keg shells / bladders? If so - do you see mold on the shells?

I'm really bothered. I have no interest in our brand being associated with this.

Any comments appreciated.

[Bainbridge]

If you've got any kind of humidity at all around then your cold room will be...moist. Kegs get washed after filling, condensation accumulates on the outside, cold room gets mopped out or something, moisture will be there. Mold will grow, sooner or later, no matter how clean your kegs are. It's a Life Finds A Way kinda thing. My favorite is polycoated DasPlus kegs, boy does mold love those! We've got some containing three year old beers in storage waaay in the back that get filthy, despite an annual wipe down and sani spray. It's gonna happen. So we seasonally empty and bleach the cold room (got a special, destroyed sweatshirt just for that!). Any kegs that have fuzzies get cleaned before going to customers, easy enough. We use an acid-sanitizer soap on the outside when the kegs get washed. Bout all you can do.

[ChesterBrew]

I have to agree. Maybe the kegs got sprayed by an errant splash of something and then were in an environment where mold could grow.

[BrooksCooper_]

Thanks

Thanks guys. We'll assume that storage for a time will lead to some need to clean shells and will be more vigilant about cleaning and drying shells before putting them in cold storage.

We do already aggressively clean and sanitize our cold room and will keep doing it.

Thanks.

[BrooksCooper_]

Found the mold source in the other cooler. Was a one-time issue. WHEW