Got me a couple kegs

[Hayzer]

I’ve got a friend that owns a soda distributorship and he hooked me up with these two kegs. Now, I’ll finally be able to transition from bottling to kegging.

Is it important that I use PBW to clean these kegs or can I use Dawn with several rinses? I also have Star-San.

These kegs still had a bit of residual soda in the bottom. They were still in their rotation of usable kegs. Should I buy new gaskets and inlet/outlet ports? They were pressurized when I got them, but they’ve been rinsed since they got gone.

Thanks for the help. I’m sure that I’ll have more questions as I move along in the process.


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[berryman]

Nice, I am fairly new to kegging myself so I'd rather let the more experienced guys on kegging answer your questions. But I can tell you if you clean them with dish soap, you better rinse the $hit out of them or you will taste soap..... You will still need to starsan before you put your beer in........

[Beer-lord]

Depending on how strong the odor is, this is what I did with a strong, root beer keg I thought I would have to trash. Don't use soap! First, I rinsed well with very hot water. Then I let is soak in hot PBW for a few hours. Next, I soaked the keg in a box of baking soda for at least 24 hours. Then rinse well and use Star San to sanitize it. Yes, overkill is what I did but there was not a trace of root beer odor left when I was done.

[BlackDuck]

I would also replace all the o rings and the poppet. They could hold some of the soda flavors. It’s cheap insurance to make sure your beer is good.


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[Beer-lord]

Great point that I completely missed. Yes, definitely replace those and soak the posts as well!

[John Sand]

For cleaning, there are many products that work. I have used dish soap on bottles with success, there are unscented versions. I like One Step or similar for keg cleaning. New o-rings never hurt, but I think I have some pretty old ones. Some of my used kegs came with soda residue, no problem cleaning them. You can use boiling water if necessary, though if the rubber bottom has been reglued, it might loosen from the heat.

[bpgreen]

You won't regret going to kegs.

I generally use Oxiclean free, PBW, or homemade PBW (there are several variations, and a long thread on HBT about it).

Replacing o rings is definitely a good idea to eliminate soda residual odors. Not to mention getting better seals.