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  • Keg Washer

    Firstly, props to the gentleman on Youtube who gave me the idea for this contraption. He said the name of his brewery too fast, or I would give them a shout out too.

    This is a keg washer utilizing an 18 gallon detergent reservoir. From left to right on the manifold we have hot city water, pressure gauge to monitor manifold pressure, input from the pump circulating the closed loop system from the sink, output to a sanky coupler equipped with a pair of centuri ball valves for each fitting (make sure to remove the liquid blowback orifice from the gas in line) and finally CO2 in at 20 PSI from the regulator.

    Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl6pxAV32t4 for a tutorial on how a keg washer like this works.

    This thing works great.

    C7
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Very creative. I did a similar set up with a bunch of Tee's, Valves, keg lines and an empty FV as my chemical reservoir before. It was a PITA but it worked. One thing though, I don't see any compressed air in the picture or mentioned in the description. Unless you are only doing acid washes you might want a pre-purge with compressed air before you wash with caustic or else the CO2 will most likely neutralize your caustic.

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    • #3
      Using CO2

      Hey BeerNut,

      I am using that 30lb CO2 tank next to the sink.

      I use perfume and dye free oxy-clean as my cleaner and star san as the sanitizer, although when I am cleaning, I do a rinse with hot water first (125F coming out of the heater), then run oxy at 125F for 15 minutes, then rinse with hot water, purge clean, rinse again, purge all liquid and then pressurize the keg to 9 psi so I can counter pressure fill them off the brite tanks. In this case, once I rinse the hell out of the kegs to get the oxy out, I will usually just stop after I have put 9 psi on the keg since not a whole helluva lot can live in CO2. Because it is impossible for me to stop tinkering with crap....especially the crap I build, I'm sure this frankenwasher will undergo further modifications. For instance, I am not a huge fan of how I have the pump mounted in relation to the down spout from the sink drain. Makes me nervous....

      I haven't run into any issues with the oxy not performing the job or any other off flavors from this process.

      The best part, this rig cost me $1400 to build versus the cheapest manual keg washer that I could find which was in the $8000 neighborhood.

      I'm not a very big brewery yet, so this homegrown keg washer works great for the time being.

      Happy Brewing!

      Comment


      • #4
        Hey Cycle7

        Just to point this out - Oxyclean in NOT considered to be food safe. While it may well do a good job cleaning equipment if a local/state/federal inspector stops by you could be in heaps of trouble for using a cleaner that hasn't been licensed for use in a food production facility. I know they chance is small but the penalties aren't pretty.
        Yes a lot of homebrews do use, but once you're making beer for sale you have to follow the FDA's rules for making food products.
        Manuel

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        • #5
          Not live yet...

          Our TTB approval is still a couple months off.

          Once the beer is "for sale" I plan on using acid 6 as the cleaner so I don't have issues using CO2 for purge.

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          • #6
            What sort of PSI are you getting from that pump if you dont mind me asking.

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            • #7
              I think your pump is drastically under sized. Those march pumps dont reach the flow rate or pressure that you would want to see in the keg for proper cleaning. I would bet that a half bbl keg will not be properly cleaned and over time you will see buildup inside the kegs. I have not seen a keg washer with a less than 1hp rating on its pumps. For comparison, the march pumps are 1/25th of a HP. In fact, if you look in the video you posted with it, the pump is much larger than a march pump.
              Last edited by jebzter; 02-05-2016, 09:44 AM.

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              • #8
                RE: what jebster wrote. I'd pull a few spears out of washed kegs and take a look--I'll bet you're getting less than optimal cleaning.
                Timm Turrentine

                Brewerywright,
                Terminal Gravity Brewing,
                Enterprise. Oregon.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by jebzter View Post
                  I think your pump is drastically under sized. Those march pumps dont reach the flow rate or pressure that you would want to see in the keg for proper cleaning. I would bet that a half bbl keg will not be properly cleaned and over time you will see buildup inside the kegs. I have not seen a keg washer with a less than 1hp rating on its pumps. For comparison, the march pumps are 1/25th of a HP. In fact, if you look in the video you posted with it, the pump is much larger than a march pump.
                  I will go one step further.

                  If your pump wont at least run a CIP ball there is not a chance that it will clean a keg properly. There is no way your getting usable pressure with that, a 1 hp pump is about as small as you can use. Design is good other than that but without replacing the pump, you are gambling with your beer. I would rethink that 120 degree water as well, 140 degree is the low end, we use 185 degree with PBW but will be replacing PBW with ultra-niter with delivery of the new keg washer. Good luck.

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