Author: Ray Found
I’m a tinkerer who enjoys the challenge of simplifying shit. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m cheap, as I see the value in high quality gear, but I hate wasting time and energy doing things that could potentially be done quicker and easier… while having a beer. I started kegging a couple years ago and found it solved all of life’s problems, so I gave away all of my bottles and never looked back. Burn the ships as one might say. As wonderful as this transition has been, kegging comes not without it’s fair share of annoying issues, and one aspect of homebrewing I enjoy is coming up with novel solutions for these problems. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the suggestions of others, I absolutely do, it’s just that I often find myself halfway down the path to a unique solution before I even consider looking into what others have done. Today I’ll be sharing a few techniques I’ve come up with that have simplified my kegging process and I think could be of use in your brewhouse.
| BEER LINE CLEANER |
Thoroughly cleaning beer lines requires more than a quick rinse with water or sanitizer. Rather, in order to remove caked on residue and dissolve beer stone, a proper beer line cleaner solution should be continuously run through the lines, the flow helping to dislodge any particulate that may have adhered to the insides of the tubing. Of course, there are many DIY draft line cleaners out there, most involving a handful of aftermarket keg posts and adapters, and all of which I’m sure do the trick just fine. But I thought I might be able to come up with a simpler solution, one that required less expensive gear and even fewer steps. What I eventually settled on cost me about $20 and took minutes to piece together, it truly doesn’t get much easier than this.
First, you will need to acquire the following items, if you don’t already have them:
– Growler filler adapter for your faucet (Perlick 525 | Perlick 630 | Vent-Matic).
– 3′ to 6′ of 3/8” tubing (length depends on bucket placement relative to faucets).
– 2-5 gallon bucket.
– Submersible water pump.
With everything in hand, all that’s left to do is piece it together. Attach one end of the 3/8” tubing to the pump with the other end attached to the growler filler.
Insert the growler filler into the faucet, opening the tap to allow the line cleaner to flow through, then place the pump in the bucket of line cleaner solution (1-2 gallons works fine). Before turning the pump on, it’s important to loosen the screw on the top of the disconnect to allow line cleaner to flow through.
Now just place the disconnect end of the tubing in the bucket of line cleaner and turn the pump on. That’s it! The line cleaner will recirculate from the bucket, up through the faucet and beer lines, then back into the bucket, taking with it any flavor destroying gunk along the way. I’ve been using this method for nearly a year now and it works great! I’ve seen beer line cleaning kits that require manual pumping going for around $50, more than double the amount I spent building this automated rig.
| KEG CLEANER & SANITIZER |
In proper Alton Brown fashion, I detest unitaskers, so I came up with a super easy way of adapting the beer line cleaner for use as a keg cleaner! The best part is it requires only 3 additional parts and a couple lengths of extra tubing:
– 1 liquid out barbed disconnect (ball lock | pin lock)
– 1 gas in barbed disconnect (ball lock | pin lock)
– 3/8″ nylon tee fitting
Start by connecting three 18-24″ lengths of tubing to the nylon tee fitting, you can use hose clamps to secure them if you prefer. Next, connect two of the open ended tubes to a liquid and gas disconnect. It was tough, but the main part of the build is done. At this point, you can prepare the cleaning solution, I prefer oxygen based cleaners, filling the bucket with approximately 6 gallons worth. Now place both the keg and the pump in the bucket, connect the disconnects to the keg, and turn the pump on. Cleaner from the bucket will be pumped through the liquid and gas posts, which will fill the keg and eventually cause cleaning solution to cascade down the side of the keg and back into the bucket.
Just like with the line cleaner, this can run unattended indefinitely, leaving you free to tend to more important matters, like drinking a beer. I don’t do this for every keg, but it works great for those that are excessively dirty or when I pick up a refurbished keg requiring a good cleaning.
| DRIP TRAY DRAIN |
Drip trays are nice because they do a good job of keeping errant beer from landing on your floor. However, their small footprint means they don’t hold very much. As a result, many of us resort to draining off the beer left in our lines overnight into disposable cups or some other easy-to-dump vessel lying around. Once full, these cups often get left for dead, attracting all sorts of bacteria carrying, pellicle-forming microorganisms that ultimately end up stinking up the garage. Sick of this routine, I conceived a totally unoriginal idea: a drip tray drain! Since I already had a drip tray and didn’t want to purchase a new one that included a drain, which are dramatically more expensive, I decided to add one myself.
Initially, I had difficulty finding what I wanted, locating several aquarium drains that fit ½” or larger tubing, which was slightly bigger than I desired. Eventually, a friend mentioned the idea of a hollow carriage bolt, which I didn’t end up finding at the hardware store, but while there I had an epiphany– ceiling fans use hollow, threaded bolts, which allow the pull chain to pass through. Bingo!
I located and bought a pack of 3/8″ hollow nipples then headed home. Once there, I drilled a 3/8” hole in the bottom of my drip tray, fastening the nipple with matching jam nuts on the top and bottom.
The nipple fit perfectly inside the standard 3/8” tubing used by homebrewers, creating a snug seal. For added insurance against leaks, I sealed the topside with 2-part epoxy.
Finally, I added a nipple to a 2 gallon bucket lid to receive the beer from the drip tray, though you could just as easily shove the tubing into a 3/8″ hole, then I installed another nipple on the lid to serve as a vent.
Now, rather than filling and forgetting cups on my keezer, I simply open the faucets and allow the drip tray to catch the first 2-4 oz of beer that’s been sitting in the lines, as well as the overflow from a foamy pour. At the end of a drinking session, I pour a cup or so of Star San solution into the drip tray to rinse out the residual, then down the drain it goes and into to my dump bucket. I like to leave about a quart of Star San solution in the dump bucket to water down the beer it meets, and I cover the vent hole with an undamaged bottlecap to prevent flies from getting in and being attracted to the bucket. It seems to be working great and my wife no longer complains of the stench she used to when walking by my keezer. My inadvertent vinegar production is way down.
I’m certain I didn’t cover all of the great kegging hacks out there, if you’ve come up with something cool, please share them in the comments section below!
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23 thoughts on “Quick & Easy Kegging Hacks | DIY”
Buy a few of these and daisy chain your faucets with 1/2″ ID tubing and use this jumper on the ball lock connections. I see you are pinlock so it doesn’t apply to you, but the ball lock crowd should all own a few of these. Hook it all up and let it run for 30 minutes with your choice of cleaner.
https://www.brewhardware.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Ball_Lock_JumperPost
That’s awesome AND cheap. Love it. Well, Except for the “No pinlock” part.
I have tried the beer line cleaner. I have the same pump, but do the reverse, hook the beer line up to the pump then up through the faucet, but i get like no flow, is that ok, or should it come out with more pressure?
Really it just needs to be moving, it doesn’t need to be like a pressure washer. 🙂 I use my March pump currently, but want to get a submersible pump to make it more convenient for cleaning kegs and lines.
This pump doesn’t put a lot of flow… but I don’t think it needs to, as long as it is circulating.
Thanks again for a great article, I hope you don’t get tired of sharing. Dick Branson
Sent from Yahoo! Mail for Windows 8
Awesome practical article! I’ve already got the keg cleaning setup put together but used in a bit of a different configuration. I like this much better!
Thanks!
I “keg” in soda syphon/seltzer bottles using cheap CO2 cartridges (They are like 0.1$ a piece) It just werks. It is the best hack i’ve ever did i think.
The only downside is that now i have to ferment my 4 gal batched in 4 different 1 gal fermenters because i can keg only 1 gal at a time.
Within 6 hours from primary you already get passable carbonation. After a day in the fridge it gets good. I could illustrate the method if anyone needs it.
On the other hand fermenting the same batch in 4 different fermenters means endless experimentation potential…
Can’t use triangle test on 4 separate variables, but easy enough to separate it into multiple fermentor type xBmts.
I’d be interested in seeing this method!
Sorry for the delayed reply, i created an imgur folder with desriptions:
http://imgur.com/a/wpwK2
When you decide to drink it you should just screw off the top slowly, you can’t use it like a tap with the handle, it will just shoot out foam. It gets drinkable in 6 hours and good after a day or more in the fridge in terms of carbonation..
If you’re on ball lock you can pump into one of these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Beer-Brew-Homebrew-Carbonation-Cap-Counter-Pressure-Bottle-Filling-Retail-and-Wholesale/2044687693.html
And just place the bucket so the faucet dumps back into it for recirculation.
Works with any faucet and the Carbonation Cap is also useful for pressurizing to-go bottles.
Yes you can. It is also more expensive than the growler filler, and isn’t also a growler filler. 😉
I have vent-matics; the growler filler is more.
The growler filler is still pretty cool though and I imagine I’ll get or make one at some point 🙂
1/2″ ID tube fits over a perlick. Would that work on a Ventmatic? After the latest write up on those, I’m wanting to upgrade from my 525PC this winter
I have something similar that I use for kegs and beer lines. I set it up upside down in a 5 gal bucket and that pretty much scrubs the inside of the kegs. I also periodically disassemble the whole thing so I can really scrub out the areas around the QD’s that have more nooks and crannies. My pump is I think a bit bigger than yours because it pumps at a pretty good rate. I used it for beer lines also but I went the other way, silly me yours is a better easier way. BTW high temp silicone tubing fits nice and tight over the end of the faucets so you can save on the growler filler!
For the drip tray I would have gone with a 3/8″ or 1/4″ brass nipple. Those lamp nipples are only zinc coated and are likely to rust with all that acidic fluid around. Though it probably doesn’t matter that much. Good idea though. I’ll use brass but this is a mod in my future.
For those of us with ball lock kegs, I’m wondering what’s the easiest way to allow cleaning solution to flow thru the disconnect? I see the carbonator cap suggested above but I’m apprehensive about ordering from those oversees vendors. I was thinking instead about just ordering a liquid post for a keg and connecting the disconnect to that. Am I right in my thinking that liquid could flow freely thru that? It would be hanging loose in the bucket of cleaning solution, not connected to a keg or anything, and thus no poppet or anything either.
I posted this above, but worth reposting.
Buy a few of these and daisy chain your faucets with 1/2″ ID tubing and use this jumper on the ball lock connections. I see you are pinlock so it doesn’t apply to you, but the ball lock crowd should all own a few of these. Hook it all up and let it run for 30 minutes with your choice of cleaner.
https://www.brewhardware.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Ball_Lock_JumperPost
Out of stock. Otherwise I wouldn’t have either bothered posting 😉
Get on the email reminder. It was a week after I bought my first one, he had more in stock. He doesn’t seem to get many in stock when he does for some reason. Last week he got 8 in and I nabbed 5 for myself and a friend.
Well, you can use the method shown here with a ball lock all the same. But the ball locks do have more of the carbonator-cap type fittings available, which don’t seem to exist for pinlock.
Once a keg empties and I’ve given it a good clean/rinse I’ve just been quarter filling the keg with hot tap water, dumping in some pure sodium percarbonate (probably what that oxygen cleaner is), letting it sit for a few minutes to start reacting, then hooking it up as if it had beer in it and running it through the tap into a bucket until empty, then rinsing the keg and repeating the procedure with plain hot water (or I’ll boil the kettle and use that). Seems to work pretty well, sodium perc is very effective at removing shit that’s caked on I’ve found, like krausen scum. After that I take the disconnects off and soak them separately in sodium perc before rinsing/sanitising.