? for Draft line cleaners

[wineglow]

I clean draft beer lines in the Syracuse NY area including Baldwinsville, NY where there is an Anheuser-Busch brewery.
There are some brew masters that live and drink here and have
complaints of a buttery taste coming from the draft lines. The average person can't tell the difference, myself included. I use Anheuser-Busch cleaning products but the brew master wants them cleaned with a bleach / water solution and forget the normal cleaning products. I will agree they have highly developed taste buds to be a brew master. They claim the buttery taste comes from a bacterial infection in the lines. This happens on short lines, long lines, kegalator units, using circulating pump or cleaning pot. I have also used Micro-matic cleaning products with the same complaint.
Has anyone ever heard of cleaning them with bleach, and yes the complaints stop when I do clean them with bleach.

[Larry Tapper]

I clean line for a livily hood, Never hear of bleach. Where I can I clean with water a silca sand, It's the best system I seen, but can't be done at all accounts.Started with a machine from Z&M beer utilities co. outof Guttenberg New Jersy. Had to make my own design when parts were to hard to get, same principle but easier to get parts. Systems can have no values or y's in. The older Bars here want them cleaned this way, no chem, just silca sand .L Tapper

L. Tapper

[TAPMAN]

I also clean lines as the main part of my business, I use bleach on occasion, it does work, but you must rinse very well. Wine glow, have you tried both the acid and base chemicals from MM?, (also requires major rinsing). Also, do you circulate your chemical in the lines, or are you using cleaning pot method. Circulation also cleans using the friction of the chemical circulating through the lines. For everyday cleaning, I use TSP (trisodium phosphate). In PA., lines must be cleaned weekly, so TSP works fairly well to maintain cleanliness. Like anything, it is easier to keep it clean than to make it clean. I use MM chemicals on problem lines or new accounts that I know have not been cleaned properly.
Larry, the main problem I know of using the silica sand(glass beads?), is that no matter how smooth they are, they can leave microscopic scratches inside the lines, thus giving bacteria a place to hold onto and grow.

Tapman

[Beer Dr]

Tapman, Your right on the damage to the lines, We have been in the line cleaning business since 1943 and used the crystal machine for many years, However when barrier tubing was introduced this method will damage the barrier lines especially. We have gone to circulating pump and various chemicals, Never had the buttery compaint though. Keep us posted. Larry, Zimmerman and Martin had an employee the was running the business out of his home after the shop closed I have the number somewhere if you would want me to look for it.

[Larry Tapper]

Hey beer dr., You have it made with weekly cleaning here they are only required to keep it clean and sanitary then know one checks . I try to sell them on 2wk service know longer than 4wk.

L. Tapper

[wineglow]

Beer DR you really do have it made cleaning weekly. No one checks in this area. I try to sell two week service no longer than 4 weeks. I started a new account this week on regular service after they had gone 4 years without cleaning!!!! I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't an American Legion. It was a four faucet system and it took a screwdriver and hammer to remove the shaft assembly from the faucet. Green mold, black mold and who knows what else. It actually smelled like a sewer and they were still enjoying the beer. They said they started getting "floaters" in the glass about 2 years ago and recently they turned to "sinkers".

[Beer Dr]

Wineglow, You pretty much answered your own question. Every major distributer of draught beer equipment recomends at a minimum beer lines should be cleaned every two weeks. If some of your accounts are not allowing you come in a regular basis, the bacteria is probably getting ahead of you. If these accounts are concerned enough about the taste issue, have them let you do extensive cleaning weekly for a couple of weeks to straighten out the problem. PA as only been strictly enforcing the weekly cleaning since the State Police took over enforcement. It's now right on the compliance checklist when they come in to do an inspection. We have always done weekly cleaning though. We very rarely get any complaints, when we do it's usually an item other than the cleaning. Our biggest problem in this area right now is we have a carbonic company, and reps. from at least one beer distributer telling our customers it's OK to run 75% N2 / 25% CO2 on domestics @ 14 lbs. As you know, this equals flat beer, which of course must be the line cleaners fault. It's an uphill battle, but we're tring to educate more everyday!

[TAPMAN]

Beer Dr., isn't amazing how everything wrong with their tap system is our fault.

[Beer Dr]

Sometimes if you clean the lines in an account on Monday, and the customers dog runs away on Friday, you definitely had something to do with it!

[draftmaster]

no different in nyc guys our fault

[That Guy In The Cooler]

cause its so true