Old Norse brewery Thanks, very glad you found use in this. We believe in better draft quality for a brighter and tastier tomorrow. That and making sure beer tastes the way the brewer intended. Our CEO Drew Larson used to be the Bev Director at the Hopleaf in Chicago. Any time a brewer or brewery rep walked in he brought a taste of their beer from the draft system to them to get their nod it tasted perfect. Cheers!
Hey there Slackjawls. We've always just gravitated toward caustic before the acid. Our thinking is that this will clear the bacterial growth away so that the acid can get to the beer stone which will be the bottom layer. We do circulation maintenance so the other thing we do is switch the direction of flow between cycles. So, between the caustic and acid we switch the faucet exhaust line and the faucet in lines. Hope that helps -Cheers and Cheers!
Thanks for the new edits. If cleaning 16 lines, 8 at a time, should new a new caustic solution be used or can it be recycled from the previous 8 lines? Is it ok to disassemble couplers and soak in caustic like the faucets?
Our favorite part of the video now is the borderline ridiculous voice over editing:) Take your work seriously but don't take yourself to seriously is one of Drew's mottos. Thanks for pointing out that Math Error!! DOH!!!!!! When we are doing a maintenance like that we will reuse the caustic from circulation to the next as long as the system is in good condition and the fluid looks in good shape. We always remember to add more caustic though to account for the new volume of water in the second set of lines. Yes, couplers can be disassembled and soaked in the caustic as well. If they are chrome plated brass they will darken and it will speed up the erosion of the chrome but chrome plated bass cost most people more than they are worth in foam creation anyway. However, when disassembling, the scrubbing you will do is more than the caustic will do so you can also use soapy water or our favorite solution is Star San because it sanitizes and is food safe. Hope that helps and good luck! Cheers and Cheers!
Ultimately it is the same materials as the faucets. We soak couplers we are refurbishing for some other use. Using caustic is fine, our point was more that you don't need to to get them cleaned and sanitized.
Leaders Beverage ok great thanks. I'm sorry I missed the 2nd half of your response to my first question as I didn't click "read more". Thanks again! Great info!
Changing the jumper every 3 months is a good idea. It only costs less than 20 bucks. No big deal. Using Ph paper can be very misleading if the water where you live has an acidic or basic inherent Ph. Using a reference of 7 only works if the water is neutral.
Hi Kevin, it's surprising that a search for micro matic cleaning chemical isn't turning anything up. Here is a link directly to micro matic. Unfortunately, you must purchase 6 bottles at a time and the hazardous shipping fee really makes it expensive by the case. www.micromatic.com/beer-line-cleaning-kits/liquid-beer-line-cleaner -good luck and cheers!
What about using Citric Acid to remove beerstone? Is that compatible with a mix of phosphoric acid and nitric acid? Will it remove beerstone effectively?
I would not recomend to mix citric acid and phoshopic acid. Use one or second. I have great experience with hydroxide sodium with 1.5%-2% and for neutralisation citric acid or phosporic acid. They both do great around 0.5% or 1%
+lmen1990 That is great! The most important test is the taste test and knowing the pint before cleaning tastes just as good as the pint after cleaning. If the beer tastes perfect then your doing good! Cheers!
Silicone was used many decades ago because draft quality wasn't a thing. The acidity of the beer will leach the silicone flavor/aroma. It is highly recommended to use polyvinyl for your beer line jumpers. This is easily purchased through any number of online beer suppliers. As to boiling water, that is weakly a sanitizer but not a cleaner. You need a caustic agent to clean away bacterial build up, boiling water will only help remove loose layers of top grime. Plus, hot water will loosen lines allowing them to slip out of clamps. Probably not the answer you hoped for, though, we do hope this helps. Cheers
Thanks for uploading yet another great and informative video.Cheers & Skål from Norway.
Thanks, Øyvind Langgård! We are super stoked you found the video useful and informative and thanks so much for chiming in.
-Cheers & Skål
Thank y'all SO much for all of these videos. They are made extremely well and are very easy to understand. Y'all have helped me so much!Thank you.
Hi Clayton,
Thanks so much for your kind words and feedback. We are immensely pleased and proud they were able to help you out.
-Many Cheers!
This is a lot of useful information. Cheers
Old Norse brewery Thanks, very glad you found use in this. We believe in better draft quality for a brighter and tastier tomorrow. That and making sure beer tastes the way the brewer intended. Our CEO Drew Larson used to be the Bev Director at the Hopleaf in Chicago. Any time a brewer or brewery rep walked in he brought a taste of their beer from the draft system to them to get their nod it tasted perfect.
Cheers!
great and useful video!!!!
Thanks from Brazil!!!
Emidio Azevedo Fantastic!! We are so glad you found the video useful. Thanks so much for letting us know. -Cheers!
Thanks for the great videos. If you're doing a quarterly cleaning should you do caustic then acid or is the order not important?
Hey there Slackjawls. We've always just gravitated toward caustic before the acid. Our thinking is that this will clear the bacterial growth away so that the acid can get to the beer stone which will be the bottom layer. We do circulation maintenance so the other thing we do is switch the direction of flow between cycles. So, between the caustic and acid we switch the faucet exhaust line and the faucet in lines.
Hope that helps
-Cheers and Cheers!
Thanks for the new edits. If cleaning 16 lines, 8 at a time, should new a new caustic solution be used or can it be recycled from the previous 8 lines? Is it ok to disassemble couplers and soak in caustic like the faucets?
Our favorite part of the video now is the borderline ridiculous voice over editing:) Take your work seriously but don't take yourself to seriously is one of Drew's mottos. Thanks for pointing out that Math Error!! DOH!!!!!!
When we are doing a maintenance like that we will reuse the caustic from circulation to the next as long as the system is in good condition and the fluid looks in good shape. We always remember to add more caustic though to account for the new volume of water in the second set of lines.
Yes, couplers can be disassembled and soaked in the caustic as well. If they are chrome plated brass they will darken and it will speed up the erosion of the chrome but chrome plated bass cost most people more than they are worth in foam creation anyway. However, when disassembling, the scrubbing you will do is more than the caustic will do so you can also use soapy water or our favorite solution is Star San because it sanitizes and is food safe.
Hope that helps and good luck!
Cheers and Cheers!
Thanks. What about soaking couplers in caustic for a deep thorough clean?
Ultimately it is the same materials as the faucets. We soak couplers we are refurbishing for some other use. Using caustic is fine, our point was more that you don't need to to get them cleaned and sanitized.
Leaders Beverage ok great thanks. I'm sorry I missed the 2nd half of your response to my first question as I didn't click "read more". Thanks again! Great info!
Starsan is an acid and also kills bacteria. Would I be able to just use starsan every time for an at-home kegerator?
Changing the jumper every 3 months is a good idea. It only costs less than 20 bucks. No big deal. Using Ph paper can be very misleading if the water where you live has an acidic or basic inherent Ph. Using a reference of 7 only works if the water is neutral.
I love the thorough video, thanks!
Links to purchase this cleaner for the regular guy at home? Amazon searching fails me at the moment :(
Hi Kevin, it's surprising that a search for micro matic cleaning chemical isn't turning anything up. Here is a link directly to micro matic. Unfortunately, you must purchase 6 bottles at a time and the hazardous shipping fee really makes it expensive by the case.
www.micromatic.com/beer-line-cleaning-kits/liquid-beer-line-cleaner
-good luck and cheers!
What about using Citric Acid to remove beerstone? Is that compatible with a mix of phosphoric acid and nitric acid? Will it remove beerstone effectively?
I would not recomend to mix citric acid and phoshopic acid. Use one or second. I have great experience with hydroxide sodium with 1.5%-2% and for neutralisation citric acid or phosporic acid. They both do great around 0.5% or 1%
We clean out lines with caustic every single time we kick a keg and tap up a new one. It can be tiresome but it makes sure every line is clean.
+lmen1990 That is great! The most important test is the taste test and knowing the pint before cleaning tastes just as good as the pint after cleaning. If the beer tastes perfect then your doing good! Cheers!
Great informative video.
What are your thoughts around using silicone lines and circulating boiling water thru them? Looking for an alternative for home-brew.
Silicone was used many decades ago because draft quality wasn't a thing. The acidity of the beer will leach the silicone flavor/aroma. It is highly recommended to use polyvinyl for your beer line jumpers. This is easily purchased through any number of online beer suppliers. As to boiling water, that is weakly a sanitizer but not a cleaner. You need a caustic agent to clean away bacterial build up, boiling water will only help remove loose layers of top grime. Plus, hot water will loosen lines allowing them to slip out of clamps. Probably not the answer you hoped for, though, we do hope this helps. Cheers
Thanks I am from California
Please write a book,
Thanks. Good video.
Thanks Scott! We are very glad you enjoyed and hopefully found some use from the video. -Cheers!
Would you be interested in joining me on a podcast?
Only the first 5 sec of the video will play
Can not hear you very well :( all my Vol's are set highest !
vinegar is cheap and safe
At 54 seconds I’m not even in college and I’ve been a oh 😂 I’m 9th grade