Here is an outline for cleaning and sanitizing corny kegs for use in home brewing of beer. Below you will find a detailed description for sanitizing. For a detailed description of how to clean a corny keg the first time after you have purchased it, see other documents in this area. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cleaning a corny keg 1) Fill half full plut a tad with cleaning solution. Close up and pressurize. 2) Bleed cleaner out of both liquid and gas valves. 3) Turn upside down every 10 minutes for 4 times. 4) Disassemble completely. Brush out all tubes and valves. Brush out any goop left on inside of keg. 5) Rinse all with plenty of hot water. 6) Turn upside down to drain and dry. Sanitizing a corny keg (assumes already clean) 1) Fill with 1 gal. iodophor, close up and pressurize. 2) Bleed iodophor out of both liquid and gas valves, and through any transfer hose you may be using to rack with. 3) Shake keg to distribute iodophor all over inside. Shake every minute for 5 minutes. 4) Open and pour iodophor into a clean pail, close up again. 5) Pressurize using hot water in the gas valve (this will rinse the gas valve) and bleed water out the liquid valve, rinsing it as well. 6) Relieve pressure, drop lid in iodophor, dump out water. 7) Rinse with hot water on a sprayer upside down. 8) Rinse lid with hot water, up end keg quickly and put on lid. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keg sanitization ================= Yes, some people say you should disassemble a keg to sanitize it, but if it is clean, this is not necessary. If the keg is dirty, you may have to disassemble it to clean it thoroughly, after which, sanitization should be done with the keg assembled. See section below on disassemby. The purpose of sanitization of a keg is to bring all surfaces which will later be in contact with beer in contact with sanitizer for an appropriate amount of time and then flush them to remove sanitizer. Some people may disagree with my method of flushing with hot water as a final step, but I have not found it to be detrimental. If you want to leave a no-rinse sanitizer on your equipment, that is your decision. The other thing you want to do when sanitizing a keg is to sanitize the transfer hose you will use to fill it with. This method accomplishes both at once. Equipment needed: Sanitizer concentrate (I use iodophor) Water inlet hose with gas QD on one end and female hose bib on the other. Transfer hose with liquid QD on both ends. Liquid QD hold open gadget Liquid QD hold open gadget. This is a device which when placed in a liquid Quick Disconnect fitting, will hold it open and allow it to pass liquid freely out of the hose it is attached to. It consists of a valve body (either ball or pin lock) and a threaded piece. Since ball lock fittings are 1/4" FNPT, you can just use a short 1/4" NPT pipe nipple. Pin lock are generally 9/16"-18 threads and this is not a common size. You can obtain an adapter from Foxx Equipment Co. which is designed to allow you to put a pin lock valve body on a ball lock keg and it has the threads you need. It is part # 04E04-123 Pin Lock Adapter and as of 1994, costs about $4.00. You could get away with not using a threaded piece of any kind, but the trouble with that is that it is very hard to remove, once inserted if you do not have something to grab onto. Also, if the poppet valve is not very firmly seated in the valve body, it will pop out and you will not actuate the valve in the QD fitting. Pour an appropriate amount of sanitizer concentrate for 6 gals of liquid into the bottom of your keg. Attach the water inlet hose to a source of water on one end and to the gas in valve body on your keg. Begin filling keg with water. When there is a couple of inches of water, shake thoroughly from side to side to dissolve the sanitizer if you use powder. Fill with water at full speed until close to the top and then slow way down. Fill until a couple of ounces of water spills over the top. Very gently, slip the oval lid into the keg and secure. Push the hold open gadget into one end of your transfer hose and attache the other end of the transfer hose to the liquid out valve body of the keg. Add a small amount more hot water until about 1 pint has run out of the transfer hose. With the water still running at very slow speed, remove the hold open gadget from the QD. Turn off the water and remove the water inlet hose from the keg. Let the keg and hose sit full of sanitizer for the appropriate contact time for your sanitizer. Re-insert the hold open gadget to release keg pressure. Open the oval lid and dump the sanitizer. Rinse the keg and lid thoroughly with hot water. Re-attach the inlet hose and begin filling with water. Immediately close and secure the oval lid. After a short time, water will begin coming out of the hold open. Let about a quart come out. Turn off the water. Remove the transfer hose from the keg and with a sanitized finger, press in on the QD valve nipple while letting the QD with the hold open dangle down. This will drain the hose. Remove the hold open. Set the hose aside. Use the inlet hose to relieve pressure from the keg, drain all water from the keg and replace and secure the lid. You now have a sanitized keg and transfer hose. Keg disassembly =============== Release pressure via relief valve in cover or by placing a rag over the gas valve body and pressing down on the poppet with a screwdriver. Open the oval lid and drain all liquid and rinse out. Reseal the oval lid. Get a deep socket wrench which fits the valve bodies. If you have ball lock, ignore the next step. For pinlock, cut a notch in every corner of the socket (for 6 point, or every other corner for 12 point) to accommodate the pins. Lay the keg on its side and sit on it. Place the socket over the valve body and turn counter clockwise. If it is stuck, tap the end of the socket wrench handle sharply with a hide mallet. If this fails to break it loose, use an air driven impact wrench. If you don't have one, take your socket down to your local service station and plead on their kindness to do it for you. Once you have broken it loose for the first time, you will never need to do it again unless you let a gorilla tighten them back down for you. Place the keg upright, screw the valve bodies off completely, lift out the dip tubes and remove the oval lid. Assembly is in the opposite order. It is strongly suggested that you replace all rubber O-rings before using soda syrup kegs for brewing purposes. Now is the time to do that.