Now i have my beer hooked up to my beer engine i was wondering how often i should clean my beer line. I was told a while ago by a friend every 3 days. This seems quite a lot. I presume if it's not cleaned, after a while the beer will take on an unpleasant taste.
Paul
How often should i clean my beer line?
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Vossy1
Are beer lines different to corny lines 
If I have 2 corny's with the same ale in I simply swap the empty corny's line onto the new corny's line, with a swab of iodphor on the respective post before hand
Never had any trouble so far, and bearing in mind the original can be on tap for 2 weeks if it's lucky....that's not bad going
If I have 2 corny's with the same ale in I simply swap the empty corny's line onto the new corny's line, with a swab of iodphor on the respective post before hand
Never had any trouble so far, and bearing in mind the original can be on tap for 2 weeks if it's lucky....that's not bad going
Well, for what it's worth, I don't clean the line to my beer engine until the polypin is empty. If I cleaned it every time it was used, I'd have to chuck away nearly a pint of booze each time (contents of the pump and line).
My reasoning is that the beer in the line is no different to the beer in the polypin - it's just in a different place. And you wouldn't empty the polypin (or cask etc) to clean that, would you. The only thing I can think that would stick to the beer line is bits of yeast or trub that settle when the beer's not moving, and if left for a long time will develop an off-flavour. But the same could be said for the storage vessel.
How often do pubs clean their lines? I don't know, but do they clean the lines before the cask is empty?
My reasoning is that the beer in the line is no different to the beer in the polypin - it's just in a different place. And you wouldn't empty the polypin (or cask etc) to clean that, would you. The only thing I can think that would stick to the beer line is bits of yeast or trub that settle when the beer's not moving, and if left for a long time will develop an off-flavour. But the same could be said for the storage vessel.
How often do pubs clean their lines? I don't know, but do they clean the lines before the cask is empty?
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lorand
That makes sense to me - clean the line between barrels. For homebrewers, that will be less often than a pub, of course, but I don't see a problem.lorand wrote:When I had a pub I cleaned real ale lines when I changed the barrel. Real ale needs more care than lager and I would strongly suggest always cleaning when putting on a new barrel.
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steve_flack
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Beer Monster
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Beer Monster
. I'm gonna get me some of that me thinks. That's the worst part, for me, all the rinsing out of everything after cleaning. Available i hope through the usual online places.All this talk of beer lines has got me going. I've transferred my Summer Quaffer from the placcy barrel into a polypin and connected the beer engine up - hadn't had anything in it for a few weeks. Naturally, I cleaned the line first. 
So if I can keep my hands off it, that's the beer supply sorted out for the party/barbie (weather decides) next weekend.
So if I can keep my hands off it, that's the beer supply sorted out for the party/barbie (weather decides) next weekend.
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delboy
Much like jim, if i was to clean the line between my cornie and tap i would lose about a pint each and every time. The line is quite long plus it goes through the immersion chiller (a lot of void to be filled).
So far i've only cleaned the lines once but i used hot oxyclean solution which does a great job of getting any crud off.
Its probably about time they had a clean again (im going to aim for a good strip down and clean at least once a month).
So far i've only cleaned the lines once but i used hot oxyclean solution which does a great job of getting any crud off.
Its probably about time they had a clean again (im going to aim for a good strip down and clean at least once a month).
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torchwood brewery
after each keg change for me i use neo pink in warm water then flush with honey disolved in warm water (about 5ltrs water x 2desert spoons honey)
the flush kills off the sanitiser resiidue and as honey is a natural antibiotic (ant-ee-by-ot-ic ,as DEL TROTTER WOULD SAY it picks off impurities .
the first beer comes out with a bit of a honey tang but thats it the beer taste good too. never had a shitty line since and this was a meathod passed down to me from my old uncle in australia who owned a pub for 50 years in port lincoln and done this every week .he didn't like the idea of chemical resiidues in his lines .
i do this and he was right. IMO try it out some time you know it makes sense.
richard
the flush kills off the sanitiser resiidue and as honey is a natural antibiotic (ant-ee-by-ot-ic ,as DEL TROTTER WOULD SAY it picks off impurities .
the first beer comes out with a bit of a honey tang but thats it the beer taste good too. never had a shitty line since and this was a meathod passed down to me from my old uncle in australia who owned a pub for 50 years in port lincoln and done this every week .he didn't like the idea of chemical resiidues in his lines .i do this and he was right. IMO try it out some time you know it makes sense.
richard
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steve_flack
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torchwood brewery
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torchwood brewery