Keys to Successful Keg Cleaning

So, you’ve spent time designing great recipes, taken the time to mill your grains to the perfect crush, double-checked your mash temperature, and measured your hops just so. You pitched the right amount of yeast into your sanitized carboy. You are excited about this beer and eager to taste it. It is finally time to rack it into your corny keg.

After all that effort, are you sure it is cleaned and sanitized properly? Let’s go through that in this article.

I use the Mark II Keg Washer to clean my corny kegs in my commercial sink. This will allow you to circulate the liquids you’ll use not only in the main body of the keg, but through the beer post and dip tube as well. I like to pull the gas post and dip tube out and clean them separately. For that, you’ll need an 11/16” box wrench or socket set with an 11/16” socket. While 11/16” is pretty standard, there are other brands of kegs out there with different size posts, so getting a set is a better option.

You’ll need to assemble the washer with about two and half feet of vinyl tubing and a ball lock disconnect in order to clean the beer post and dip tube.