BLC in a corney?

[panthermark]

As you know by now...I didn't win my e-bay bid on that pressurized line cleaner. Brand new....$65.00 with free shipping....dang! Someone sniped me and got it for $66.00.

Anyway....I know I need to clean my lines, and just on principle, I now can't pay $100+ for the the same cleaning unit kit.

However, as the Scotch Ale worked its magic on my brain....it dawned on me that I can now easily put liquid IN my corney. So...I did some checking around....but I wanted to check here also....

Can you put a quart of luke warm water and a 1/2 oz of liquid BLC IN a corney and use that corney for a "pseudo" pressurized line cleaning kit?

Gas in, liquid out....


Better yet...since I will have a two tap system, can I run the BLC from the corney, through the first beer line and shank, and apply a "jumper hose" between the shanks so that the BLC will flow continue to flow through to the second shank and beer line, then finally terminate at the (disconnected) sankey for the other keg?

That seems like it will work in theory...since it will run BLC through the ball connector for the corney, both beer lines and shanks, and into the sankey. Since the faucets have to come off anyway to be cleaned by hand...it only makes sense to run a "jumper" between the shanks.

What do you think?

[shuggy]

Turning a corny keg into a pressurized line cleaner is an excellent use of resources. You should be glad you lost out on that auction. Just get two of these faucet cleaning adapters and some tubing to connect them. It will work exactly the way you have it described.

[psychodad]

The only drawback is it will use a lot of co2.

Everything else is a win as far as I can tell.

[panthermark]

Excellent news....thanks!

Nothing better than saving money!

As for the CO2, I have a 15lb tank ($50 filled on craigslist)...so that isn't an issue. But I will be very diligent with the PSI when I clean the lines. No need in using and releasing anymore CO2 into the air than I have to.

[shuggy]

It's really not going to use all that much co2. Sure it would be better to use a smaller vessel but it's not like the corny needs to be purged so it's only using co2. The air already inside the keg is taking up space as it is and the pressure doesn't need to be very high. One thing that is a concern is there is not going to be an on/off per se. You'll either have to pull the gas disconnect off the corny or dis-engage the coupler at the other end to stop the flow.

[panthermark]

I'm thinking I can flip the gas shut-off valve at the bottom of the regulator to stop the flow of CO2. I think that could be my "off" switch.

[psychodad]

You may have trouble managing to allow for soak time doing it that way. I think the jumper hose is often used by the commercial guys, but they tend to use a recirculating system. Also unless you have removed the check ball from your sankey, you will need to disconnect the line from it.

[panthermark]

Won't the checkball in the sankey stop the BLC from coming out of the bottom of the sankey...at least until I use a "checkball lifter" to allow the flow to contiune?

I've never used a standard hand-pump cleaner (or any cleaner for that matter....yes...shame on me)....but if you hook up a pump cleaner to the shank of any standard one tap faucet....how do you allow the line to soak without the BLC coming out of the sankey or pushing back into the regulator?

I've never pushed anything "backwards" through beer line, so I'm not sure how all of this will work.


Put BLC into the corney.
Place the jumper on the shanks.
Uncouple the sankey from sixtel.
Pressure up the corny and start the flow....forward through the corney line, and backwards through the sixtel line.

At this point, I my only concern would be BLC back flowing into the regulator that is hooked up to the sankey....but again...that would be the same concern anyone with a hand-pump would have.

I guess the questions are...will the checkball in an uncoupled sankey stop both BLC from backflowing into regulator going to the sixtel, and ald BLC from flowing out of the bottom of the sankey when being pushed in "reverse"?

I wonder if I should also I cut the "foward" CO2 flow to the sankey at the gas valve? I would have pressure flowing backwards through most of the system, up until the sankey....where there could be pressure also pushing foward.

Hmmmm....I may end up with a beer tornado...

[psychodad]

You aren't going to get BLC in your regulator with this. But you aren't going to get beer to backwards past the check ball either very well.


Your list slightly modified:

Put BLC into the corney
Place the jumper on the shanks
Disconnect the beer line from the sixtel sankey
Pressure up the corny and start the flow forward through the corney line, and backwards through the sixtel line into a container that you let the disassembled sankey and faucets soak in

IMHO, you still need to give the BLC time to ait in the lines, pushing a quart through them just won't be enough for a total cleaning.

[shuggy]

IMHO, you still need to give the BLC time to ait in the lines, pushing a quart through them just won't be enough for a total cleaning.

Correct. Perhaps leaving the beer line attached to the coupler for the soak portion will work. Leave solution in lines for 10-15 minutes then disconnect beer line for a thorough flush.

[panthermark]

Correct. Perhaps leaving the beer line attached to the coupler for the soak portion will work. Leave solution in lines for 10-15 minutes then disconnect beer line for a thorough flush.

Yup, that is exactly what I was thinking of doing.

If I leave the beer line connected to the (uncoupled) sanky, I can pressure up the BLC in the corney, run it through the ball lock, beer line, both shanks, the other beer line, and have it stop at the sankey wher it can soak for 10-15 minutes. "If" it works like I hope...then the uncoupled sankey will not leak from the bottom, nor allow backflow into regulator...even under reverse pressure.

I can then use checkball lifter to drain the BLC via the bottom of the sanky. I'm assuming nothing will backflow or leak under reverse pressure because if that were the case, than a ball check lifter would be a useless part. Plus, I can also use the checkball lifter to push out any beer in the "sanky" line...thus allowing me to easily clean both beer lines even with the sanky keg isn't empty.

That process "should" create maximum effeciency since BLC will touch every part of the system beer touches with the exception of the faucets....and those need to be cleaned by hand anyway.

The only problem I see is that I can only do this when my corney runs dry...and If I always have two kegs on tap...I'm going to have to put my liver through some serious abuse to drain that corney every two weeks.


Or


I could spend another $28.00 and just buy a 2nd corney (shipped with O rings).....that probably makes more sense. That way I will alway have an empty corney on hand and can clean the entire system in minutes, even if both kegs in the fridge still have beer in them.

[panthermark]

**Update**

So.....many months have passed since this initial thread, and I'm now the proud owner of two corny kegs.....plus 4 sankey connector which I will probably never use again....but I digress.

As far as line and faucet cleanings go......I must say....you cannot beat a corny keg. With ball lock Quick Disconnects set up, it is REALLY, REALLY, EASY to clean both lines and faucets....quickly.

The more corny kegs and lines you have...the better.

Once a keg blows, give it a quick rinse out, then throw a half-gallon of water and some BLC in it, close it up and reconnect it. Open up the tap until water/blc flows out, then close the tap. You now have a line and faucet filled with BCL.

You can do this for every line/faucet you have. Even if the other lines are filled with beer. Simply unhook the QD/line from the keg with beer, and that line up to the keg with the BCL in it. Open up the tap until BLC flows...close it...and move on to the next line.

The unhooked QD is gas/liquid tight, so you can let the BLC soak for as long as you want. It does not leak out from the QD.

I filled the lines with cleaner, and used the rest of the cleaner in the keg to actuallly clean out the keg. Once I swished it around for 10 or so minutes I dumped out the BLC, filled it up with clean water, swished it around some more, dumped and refilled...then hooked the keg back up the the faucets. I used the clean water to push out the BLC from each line....and when the keg was empty finally empty (of water), it was already clean and pressurized!

You cannot beat that! I didn't even have to remove the faucets. Every place that beer touched, BLC touched. I just took a brush, dipped it in some BLC/water that was in a cup, and gave a quick scrub to the open end of the faucet.

[jays0n]

That's exactly how I do it as well, works great and takes very little time!