Rusting in Cornelius keg

[Fil]

a pooling of not quite dissolved bleach based crystals if the keg was stood upturned might explain the concentrated corrosion ??

fwiw for cleaning kegs i find a 1-2 scoop mix of generic unscented laundry oxi well mixed in abuot 5 gallons of warm water is more than adiquate to clean kegs with a 10minute plus soak in preperation for a sanitation with a no rinse sanitiser.

[Wonkydonkey]

Yeh I was thinking the same, iirc, also hard water can mean crystals reforming/depositing, and if stored upside down. ? Water pooling. But I dont see why it would bee on the side weld/seam.

I changed my cleaners, once I got cornies as I had read chlorine was not so good for ss. And now I just use washing soda.

I got a reply from the guy about the lid, he said he uses sodium per carbonate, but i was non the wiser as to why it's pitted. But like I said it's only on the lid.
Best of luck cleaning your keg and I do think BKF is your best bet.

Cheers

[orlando]

I concur with BKF as a good start. Add just enough water to form a thick paste and apply the paste to the area you want to passivate. Let it sit on the metal for 5-10 minutes and then gently rub it off and dry with a towel. Alternately you can rinse with clean water, but you should immediately dry it with a towel so the metal gets quickly exposed to air and not water. Good luck.

[thunderbird7]

Many thanks all for your contributions. I really appreciate the responses and I've learned a lot.

[bigrichlock]

Chances are the keg was made in China from cheap low quality materials, you may find it just comes back again and again as mild steel was in the welding rods and now in the weld.

Cheers

Rich

[Kev888]

Not likely. AEB have been making cornies for decades; they are not Chinese and have always been excellent quality, in both materials and workmanship.

That isn't to say QC problems are unimaginable, but I can understand their belief that something odd has caused this. It doesn't appear to be just around welds, but rather where something unfortunate has dribbled. If that was before or after purchase I've no idea, but it does look like most of it is just on the surface so may well be rescued at this stage.

[thunderbird7]

AEB have told my supplier that this is down to something I have done and that they use only European steel (they're Italian I understand).

As previously mentioned I have only ever used VWP and Starsan as cleaning and sanitising and paranoid about getting dilution right.

I cannot recall those dribble marks being there from new so assume they happened due to whatever caused issues round the welds. They seem to stop at exactly the same level, so I infer that liquid must have been in the keg at the time, and I'm thinking it was beer!! - Hence the metallic taste I experienced in the odd pint.

My supplier is not being particularly helpful and is bouncing the problem back between AEB and me. I've spent a pretty penny on decent gear with them and reconsidering future purchases from them.......

I am going to try and sort this week and see if the helpful advice on this forum can get my keg back in use.

[Kev888]

There have been problems with people storing starsan and other potions in cornies, (and other stainless things) usually around the liquid/air boundary. But that is after extremely long contact times, not the few hours it takes to soak a keg so this is quite mysterious. I hope you can resolve it and/or track down the cause.

[vacant]

There have been problems with people storing starsan and other potions in cornies, (and other stainless things) usually around the liquid/air boundary. But that is after extremely long contact times, not the few hours it takes to soak a keg so this is quite mysterious. I hope you can resolve it and/or track down the cause.

I've had my kegs two years now. I often keep one keg slightly pressurised with a litre or so of starsan solution then each week I can disconnect my party tap from the live keg and run some starsan through it.

I've never had any staining from extremely long contact (weeks). My kegs are Cornelius, AEB and "Eurocan" (sold a couple recently, can't remember the brands).

[Kev888]

Thats okay with me; I didn't buy any

But no, starsan should be fine unless there is existing damage to the keg. It is long term (or high concentration) contact with bleach/chlorine that usually underlies reports of serious damage to sound kegs.

I believe VWP is chlorine-based, which the OP used, so that seems a strong possibility. But it depends on the dilution and contact times used - I wouldn't have expected this from say 15mins at a normal rate, however it isn't clear to me exactly what the circumstances were.

[Wonkydonkey]

Imho it is the vwp cleaner,
Google chlorine based cleaners and stainless steel. THE Cl- ions penetrate the suface layer and cause corrosion, I'm guessing pitting occurring and either pin holes are on there way? And water pooling and rusting (left wet) therefore rust staining.
Unless you have used a metal scrubby washing thing which was not a good quality type (ss) and its left some partials behind But I do think it's the former

Star San is phosphoric acid and iirc, it is used in some rust removal kits, also oxalic acid is used in BKF.

Best of luck, but I think the keg is probably best used for another uses other than storing beer,