food/foam safe grease

[Woolsocks]

I ordered a new zwickel and it came filled with grease to ease turning the handle. No way was I putting grease into my beer, so I degreased it but now it doesn't work so good. Is there some kind of lubricant that won't hurt my beer I could use?

[wildcrafter]

I ordered a new zwickel and it came filled with grease to ease turning the handle. No way was I putting grease into my beer, so I degreased it but now it doesn't work so good. Is there some kind of lubricant that won't hurt my beer I could use?

A company called Renewabe Lubricants makes food safe greases.
www.renewablelube.com
Don't know how it affects head. Ask them.

[gitchegumee]

The grease that came with your zwickle is beer safe. You should keep your zwickles lubricated in order for them to remain tight and sterile--a leaking zwickle is bacteria heaven. And also any gaskets & O-rings that you disassemble frequently; pressure relief valves; spunding valves; and the like. Any number of food-grade lubricants would work--look for NSF H1 for incidental food contact. I have Petrol-Gel in my lab supplies now, but remember using a Dow-Corning Molykote product in the past. These lubricants won't affect your foam. Cheers!

[jboekamp]

We used Paraliq GB 363 from Kluber lubrication or Turmosynyh 2000 from Lubcon for lubrication of the beer valves on bottle fillers. This was at a very large brewery which thoroughly checked all substances that could possibly touch and affect thebeer. I would personally not hesitate to use it.

[JoeV]

AKA vaseline. A little dab will do ya. Just make sure what you are greasing up (o-rings and such) is compatible with petro gel, some natural rubber is degraded by petroleum products. I actually am using a tube of stuff called keg lube right now but I checked the ingredients and its really just vaseline in a tube.

Cheers,
Joe

[pbutlert]

I use CIP lube on zwickles and new butterfly valve gaskets, the gaskets on the dome of the filter, etc.
www.cpesystems.com/cpeproducts.asp?rcdno=405

[tundra45]

Vaseline is all petroleum based and has a definite odor and taste. I've used various food grade lubes and none had an odor or taste. My 2 cents.

[JoeV]

Sorry not to be clear, I wouldn't recomend using vaselene per se. I was just pointing out that most products sold as food contact grease are actually petro-gel based (some are of course silicone based). I actually havn't even seen a jar of vaseline since I was 12 years old (back then i thought it would be fun to style my hair with it, big mistake!) so as for the taste and odor I don't remember. I do remember it takes dish soap to get out of your hair though! Thats another story though. Do you suppose the small ammount used to grease an O-ring would taint? It is imiscible with beer isn't it? I think I will do an experiment...off I go to the pharmacy with a spoon for some vaseline taste testing! Well maybe not....

[Woolsocks]

I found some vaseline and smelled it -- yuck!

[beertje46]

After seeing Kill Bill I can't even touch a jar of vaseline.

[JoeV]

It sure does smell bad.....
Now if I can just figure out who sent me that jar in the mail...very funny guys!

[Larry Horwitz]

petro gel for sure. the company is in Columbus, OH in case you're interested. You can buy a lifetime supply of food grade sanitary grease for like twenty bucks. they have lots of outlets, but when I was in Columbus we'd just walk over.

that stuff rocks!