Occasionally I will completely take apart my kegs and clean them out, replace the O-rings, etc. Whenever I do this, it is ALWAYS a complete disaster. So I thought I’d share my disaster with you guys.

Materials:

Keg, crescent wrench, new O-rings, keg lube, incredible patience.

Method:

Step 1. Have a discussion with the keg. “Keg, don’t be a jerk. We’re going to work together to get you all fixed up. Please do not give me problems”.

Step 2. Have problems.

Sigh.

Ok, so I’m holding the keg, husband is trying to loosen the gas-in post with the wrench. It won’t budge. Swear and struggle. Swear more. It still won’t budge, not even a bit. Get thoroughly annoyed and give up.

10 minutes later, I develop the resolve to win this battle. So I grab a hammer and vice grips. A few gentle taps with the hammer and I am victorious!

TAKE THAT, KEG. I WIN.

I think this is the reason why I had such a hard time taking the initial post off.



Notice the poppets are stuck inside. They’re not budging in spite of an unhealthy level of straining. So I give up, soak them in hot water and oxyclean and have dinner. Come back, take a pen and stab the poppets out. Success!

Next step, remove all of the o-rings including the one on the relief valve. My god, look at this one from the dip tube:





Ok, now everything gets a good soak in some hot water and oxyclean for about an hour, and I scrub the top of the keg with oxyclean and water. Things are going awesome now. See that Mr. Keg? Eat it. I’m winning.

Rinse everything thoroughly.

Drop the super tiny o-ring for the relief valve down the sink.

Really. Right down the sink. Proceed to lose my mind. There is no recourse but to wait until tomorrow and hope my LHBS has the appropriate o-ring or a replacement relief valve. Either way, re-assemble everything, keg lube on new o-rings, and we’re mostly golden, minus the lid.





Seriously, I hate keg maintenance day.

For a better example of how to clean a keg, this video is a good reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFmFbAWLmrY

I hope you guys have better luck than I do.

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Tags for this post: keg cleaning, humour, homebrewing