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UK Brewers, how are you washing your kegs?

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  • UK Brewers, how are you washing your kegs?

    I'm trying to find a cost effective keg washing machine, we'll only need to do 30-40 at a time. The ones I've got prices on so far from companies such as Microdat and Vigo range from £10k to £17k. These are all semi auto machines, does anyone know of a more basic solution? Are people doing this manually with modified couplers etc?

    Cheers

    Griff

  • #2
    I have no idea of the costs, but have you considered renting kegs, and getting them supplied clean. As I understand it, then you also don't have to worry about getting them back from specific retail premises, or have the problem of cleaning those which have lain around uncollected for ages. I have heard good reports about the cask rental scheme. See the SIBA website for contact details.

    Having worked on large keg cleaning / racking machines, kegs are far more difficult to clean effectively than casks, mainly as a result of having the spear in them, and needing to clean the spear "external" surface, and the various routes in the spear head, which requires pressure to ensure they are cleared thoroughly between each stage of the CIP process. This is why there is considerable cost for these machines.

    I am sure you could clean them using a cheaper system, but my guess is that you would take longer to clean them, and use more detergent, water and thermal energy to do it properly, so the overall long term cost might be more expensive than a properly designed machine.

    Have you asked any of the consultants on the SIBA site? The trouble is that most UK micros either do far more than 30 or 40 kegs at a time, so are prepared / need a good machine, or do none at all. What about getting together with a couple of other local breweries and pooling resources to buy a decent machine, and share the cost based on by usage?
    dick

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    • #3
      Thanks for the reply Dick, some good suggestions there. I think we may have to bite the bullet and get a proper keg washer, but I like the idea of seeing if we can share the cost with other brewers somehow as it will probably be under utilised by us initially.

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