BeerBorg

I just had one of my kegs kick it last night. Couldn't even drink what came out of the tap, actually; it looked to be half trub. So, farewell, 100 Years War IPA, you were a delicious beer, and I got nearly 50 pints out of it, so I can't mourn too much.

But before I hook up the Ottertoberfest keg, I think I'm going to dismantle the tap and really clean that sucker out. I'm in the habit of cleaning the line when I clean the keg out, just running the Oxy Clean solution through the line and out the tap, then rinsing with clean water, then running Star San through everything. I do this both when the keg kicks it, and again when I'm refilling the keg and lines with a new batch. But I want to make sure I'm not getting build-up in the tap itself.

I'll need to search for some instructional videos so I don't wind up creating a disaster.

Really not too much to do. After mine has sat with some PBW in it, I rinse it out very well then take it apart. I inspect the rings and use a line brush and StarSan to clean the tube and let me fittings sit in StarSan a few minutes with the poppets out. Then I put it back together, give it all a good amount of StarSan, fill it full of air then empty it thru a picnic tap. Then I grease the lid ring, make sure everything is tight and back on and fill it full of C02 and store it. Probably more cleaning then needed but it only takes a few minutes.
I use to fill it and live it aside until it's ready to fill but stopped for a while then Inkleg said he did the same so I started doing it again. I was worried that C02 sitting in the empty kegs might get stale but so far, I've not noticed any problems doing this at all.

I'll be going to the LHBS on Saturday, and I'll talk to them about it. I probably need to get a narrow nylon brush to get at everything. I may also want to get some PBW for this specific purpose (although I think OxyClean Free is still a pretty darn good cleanser). And when I dismantle it, I'll take special note of how the thing comes apart so I can put it back together with a minimum of curse words. Although I found a video on YouTube where the guy takes the Perlik apart, and there doesn't seem to be too many parts, and they look as though they can only fit back together one way, so even a moron like me should be able to handle it.