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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