How to Clean a Beer Tap System For Beginners

Why Do You Need To Clean Your Beer System?

Having an unclean beer tap system is one of the main As the popularity of craft beer keeps growing, consumers are becoming more sophisticated. Hence, the beer offered at your restaurant or pub must be up to their rising standards. During a recent survey, consumers were asked about what motivated them to drink beer from a certain place and 85% of them said that the "taste" of the beer was the main reason for their choice. So, being a business owner, you must ensure that your beer doesn’t compromise on taste.

STEP 1.

Take a large bucket and place some hot water in it. Then mix the cleaning agent in the hot water to obtain the cleaning solution. You should ensure that for each tablespoon of the cleaning agent there is at least one gallon of water. The cleaning agent is often quite aggressive so you need to handle it with care.

STEP 2.

You need to select the appropriate wrench and start removing the faucets one by one. Faucets are often delicate so you must be careful while removing them. Once you have removed all of the faucets, you need to disassemble them. For disassembling the faucet, you need to do some screwing, some tweaking, and a lot of pushing. You need to make sure that the washers come out as well because they must be properly cleaned. Then take a bowl and fill it with the cleaning solution. Now submerge all the faucet parts in the cleaning solution and let them soak for 30-60 minutes. It will be better if you use separate bowls for the parts from each faucet so that they don’t get mixed together. If you let them soak properly then most of the beer residue will come off the faucets.

Then start removing the faucet parts from the cleaning solution one by one and start brushing them with the faucet brush. You have to ensure that the remaining of the beer residue comes off as well. It is important that you properly brush the faucet parts and no spot is left uncleaned. Then take another bowl and fill it with water, now place the cleaned faucet parts in this bowl. Like before, you should use separate bowls for parts from each faucet. Leave them in water for 20-30 minutes and then remove them. Now carefully place them at a safe spot so they may dry off.

STEP 3.

You should use Electric Recirculating Cleaning Pump for this purpose. Although you can also use a hand pump cleaning kit, we strongly advise against them as they lack the power to clean long beer lines. You need to disable the keg couplers so that you can remove the beer lines. Once you have removed the beer lines, you need to connect them with the electric recirculation pump from end to end such that an effective loop is created. The recirculation pump will create a turbulent flow of the cleaning solution that will allow for thorough cleansing of the beer lines. Recirculation pumps are easy to use as you just have to turn them on and let them do the rest of the work. You should let the pump circulate the cleaning solution for 30-45 minutes and then drain the beer lines. You should then leave them for 30 minutes.

STEP 4.

After circulating beer lines with the cleaning solution, you should use the electric pump once again this time to circulate water. Let the pump run for 20-30 minutes this time and then turn it off. Then you should leave the beer lines to completely dry off.

STEP 5.

If you are using a long run system then you will notice that sometimes the beer that comes out of the tap is not cold enough. This is because your glycol system is not working properly and it needs some repairs. The job of a glycol system is to ensure that the beer remains cold from the time it leaves the keg until it reaches the tap. If there is a flaw in the glycol system then the beer will become warm while moving through the beer line. This increase in temperature also facilitates yeast growth and can also lead to ruining the taste of your beer. So, you need to repair it as soon as possible. While cleaning the beer tap system, you should also consider if there is a need for any draft system repairs, and if indeed there is a need then you must address it.

STEP 6.

Now that your beer tap system has been cleaned and repaired then you should start reassembling it. Put together the faucet parts and restore the individual faucets to their original position. Reconnect the beer lines to the tower and the kegs by using the couplers. If you have performed any repairs on the glycol system as well then it is likely that you will have to reassemble the trunk lines as well.