Making Sure Your Beer Lines Are Clean

One way to tell that your beer lines need cleaned is when you pour yourself a beer and end up with a foamy head. Of course, a foamy head is also the result of a badly poured beer from an amateur. But, we’ve all run into those from time to time.

What I’m talking about is when you know how to pour and you still get the foamy head. That is the product of bacteria and all the beer ingredients themselves that start to build up in your lines. When you are getting that, your beer does not taste its best and we don’t need that happening now do we?

So, let’s get those beer lines clean! To begin with, a pressurized cleaning bottle is the best. But, a hand pumped cleaning bottle will do the cleaning just the same. I guess it depends on how well you can pump. If you can pump a keg, you can pump a cleaning bottle. So whichever you have, let’s get started.

Mix your cleaning chemicals with warm water and pump your mixture through the lines. Let it sit for awhile. Give it a chance to do its job. While it’s soaking in the line, make sure you clean your keg coupler and faucet as well. Use the same water and cleaning chemical solution and make sure you brush the keg coupler and faucet clean. Then, rinse them off with warm water. Make sure you rinse very well leaving no cleaning chemical behind.

Now, it’s about time to rinse your lines with warm water and make sure you get all the chemical solution out of your lines as well. Once that is complete, it’s a good time to look at your washers and make sure all your seals are in good shape. A little maintenance along the way keeps you from a lot of work later.

For you homebar, you should probably take the time to clean your lines after every keg. But for some reason if that isn’t possible, then every couple of weeks is sufficient. You should look at cleaning your lines like you look at keeping your bar wiped down and your glasses clean. That way, every glass of beer you drink has the taste the beer was intended to have.

Beer line maintenance isn’t the hardest thing in the world. If you installed your kegerator or refrigerator conversion kit, then you should be able to handle cleaning your lines. It’s just that people get so wrapped up in the fun and forget their responsibilities every once in awhile. I can’t say I haven’t been there. I’m just saying that it’s important to do and when you care about something, you do what you have to do whether it’s fun or not.