Keg Cleaning

[Mase]

Sounds like I can back off my regime a bit. After a keg is kicked, I completely disassemble and use One Step, for an hour and then Sta-San for an hour using Mark’s Keg Washer II. Then I reassemble and let air dry. All seals are keg lub’ed. Then a quick rinse with Star-San prior to filling up again.

 

[BOB357]

Sounds like I can back off my regime a bit. After a keg is kicked, I completely disassemble and use One Step, for an hour and then Sta-San for an hour using Mark’s Keg Washer II. Then I reassemble and let air dry. All seals are keg lub’ed. Then a quick rinse with Star-San prior to filling up again.

Better overkill than under kill. I'm just more pragmatic than OCD

 

[Hawkbox]

Huh, I rinse the keg and clean it and then starsan it before I refill it. I don't go anywhere near as hard as some of you.

 

[sn00ky]

Depends on what's in it - if i dry hopped, i tear down just for the poppets as said before. If not, it seems i run 2 kegs of beer, then strip it down. In between, simply soak for 20 mins both ends - shake - rinse - rinse - sanitize - purge CO2 and push sanitizer out. Then leave pressure on it until needed - hoping still pressure when i do!

 

[M.Walters]

Here are my cleaning steps.
1. Take the keg apart
2. Prepare an alkali wash like Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) for cleaning the keg
3. Soak the smaller parts like lid, gasket and valves into a bucket with alkali wash
4. Fill the keg with the alkali wash
5. Soak the beer keg in the alkali wash
6. Drain and rinse the alkali wash
7. Rinse the lid, gasket and valves while cleaning them with a dish scrubber
8. Make sure all the part of keg is dry and clean
9. Reassemble the beer keg

 

[vinobrew]

Digging up this ancient thread. I tore down and cleaned 10 kegs as I was converting them to floating dip tubes. Thanks to @Donoroto for reposting the McMaster-Carr thread for keg parts found here. While taking out the dip tubes, I noticed a lot of seals that needed help. I typically break down and clean everything at least once a year. For the time spent, I may want to review more frequently.

 

[Craigerrr]

I haven't disassembled my kegs for a thorough cleaning for, well, I have no idea!
I should probably do that soon.
I usually wait until I have at least 2 kegs to clean at a time, then I:
1 Thorough rinse running hot water from the tap in through the liquid post.
2 use a toilet brush (a clean one of course) to scrub if necessary
3 Fill with PBW and tap hot water, once full I push a small amount out through the liquid post so the tube etc have PBW contact
4 Let stand for minimum 5 minutes, then flip keg upside down for minimum 5 minutes
5 push PBW to next keg which provides post and tube contact with PBW in the process.
6 thoroughly rinse as in step one.
7 fill cleaned and rinsed keg to overflowing (through gas post) with starsan from a dedicated starsan keg
8 push starsan solution to next cleaned rinsed keg, then ultimately back to the dedicated starsan keg.

Push in every case above is with co2

This leaves me with cleaned, sanitized, co2 filled kegs

 

[Dave Y]

Timely discussion. I got lazy early 2025 and only pulled the in port from some of my kegs. I got 2 infections to show for it and lost 7.5 gallons of beer.
This was the _only_ change in my process. One of them was a slow infection and took a few months to set in, I'd sampled while lagering and it was good beer. Until it wasn't.

The 2nd one spoiled faster.
I use one of these: https://homebrewing.org/products/marks-keg-and-carboy-washer

1) pull the keg posts, disassemble, spray out, clean the gunk off the outside, check the seals, etc. reseat the out port for the keg washer
2) hose it out.
2) scrub with a keg brush
3) set it on the keg washer with just water and fire it up.
4) ready the rest of the kegs
5) after about 10 minutes pull the keg, hit it with a flashlight, make sure I got all the debris. move the next keg on.
6) finish the kegs
7) repeat the wash with pbw. 10m but really it's how long it takes me to perform whatever other tasks I'm doing.
8) once all the kegs are done with PBW, wash again with star-san.
9) dry them upside down. seal when they're fully dry.

I used to push c02 into them, I may revisit that. I think I have 5 co2 and one Nitro canister, it's not like I'm hurting for co2.

 

[Donoroto]

Digging up this ancient thread. I tore down and cleaned 10 kegs as I was converting them to floating dip tubes. Thanks to @Donoroto for reposting the McMaster-Carr thread for keg parts found here. While taking out the dip tubes, I noticed a lot of seals that needed help. I typically break down and clean everything at least once a year. For the time spent, I may want to review more frequently.


View attachment 33404

Yep, mine turn ‘square’ like that too.