Summary
Draft beer system maintenance and regular cleaning are essential for preserving the quality and taste of your beer, ensuring your system runs smoothly, and ultimately, a positive customer experience. If line cleaning is neglected, it can lead to residue buildup, affecting beer taste and system functionality. Regular maintenance is key to serving top-quality draft beer.
Key Takeaways:
- Regular Cleaning: A question we get a lot from customers is how often should draft lines be cleaned? Industry standards recommend draft beer line cleaning bi-weekly (or weekly for high-volume systems) to prevent buildup and maintain beer quality.
- Professional Cleaning: Hire a qualified beer dispensing maintenance company for commercial systems to ensure thorough cleaning and optimal performance.
- Cleaning Methods: Follow recommended cleaning schedules, using caustic and acid line-cleaning chemicals as needed, and ensure proper rinsing and pH neutrality.
Why Must Draft Lines Be Cleaned Regularly?
Brewers spend months producing unique product to meet their customers’ expectations for quality and flavor. The expectations of that beer can be ruined in the few seconds it takes for a beer to travel from a keg to the faucet in a draft system that has not been properly cleaned. Maintaining a clean draft beer system is crucial for delivering the best-tasting beer, ensuring trouble-free operation and happy customers.
Along with alcohol and CO2, beer contains proteins, carbohydrates, and hundreds of other organic compounds. Yeast and bacteria routinely enter draft systems, where they feed on beer and attach to draft lines. Minerals also leave deposits in lines and fixtures. Within days of installing a brand new draft system, biofilm deposits build up on the surfaces that come into contact with beer. Without proper cleaning, over time, beer lines can accumulate residues from yeast, hops, and other beer components. If not cleaned regularly, these residues can lead to off-flavors and contamination. A draft beer line cleaning system is essential for any establishment serving draft beer. Regularly cleaning draft beer lines prevents the buildup of yeast, mold, and beer stone, which can all negatively impact the flavor and quality of your beer. Here’s how to keep your draft beer system in top shape.
The Importance of a Regular Cleaning Schedule
Implementing a regular cleaning schedule for your draft line cleaning is key to maintaining the integrity of your beer. Industry standards recommend cleaning your beer lines at a minimum of once every two weeks. Once a week is the recommended frequency for cleaning lines in high volume and long-draw systems. Using a commercial beer line cleaning service or doing it yourself with the right equipment can help you stay on track.
How to Clean Draft Beer Lines
Your commercial beer line cleaning needs should be performed by a qualified beer dispensing maintenance company to maintain and clean your system professionally. Recommendations for qualified service companies in your area can be obtained from your beer distributor and brewers in your region.
Here are the steps and points to consider for how to clean the draft beer system. To get the most out of your draft beer line cleaning system, follow these industry-recommended schedules:
- Bi-weekly: Deep clean your draft lines with a caustic line-cleaning chemical. This will eliminate buildup and keep your beer tasting fresh. Don’t forget to disassemble and clean faucets, keg couplers, and FOB devices as part of your routine draft line cleaning.
- Quarterly: Tackle beerstone buildup with an acid line-cleaning chemical, either added to your regular cleaner or as a separate solution.
- Semi-annually: Take a more in-depth approach to all Foam on Beer (FOB) devices and couplers by completely disassembling and hand cleaning them.
By adhering to these guidelines and investing in regular draft beer maintenance, you’ll ensure a consistently great beer experience for your customers.
Chemicals used in the line cleaning process are powerful and, thus, must be handled with caution.
Important Considerations:
- Training: Anyone who is performing line cleaning should be trained on the process, correct use of PPE, and proper measures to take to ensure safety for all.
- Communication: Clearly communicate to all coworkers that line cleaning is occurring.
- Presence: Never leave a line cleaning job unattended. Once the cleaning process begins, stay onsite and visible until complete.
- Rinse Verification: The best way to ensure complete rinsing of all chemical residue is by checking that the pH is neutral, which can be done very affordably with test strips.
- Know Your Chemicals: Know what chemicals you or your vendor are using and have the associated safety data sheets. Review them regularly and have them quickly accessible in case of an emergency.
Benefits of a Glycol Beer System
For establishments with high draft beer volume, a glycol beer system can be a game-changer. This system uses glycol-cooled lines to maintain a consistent temperature from keg to tap, ensuring your beer is always served at the perfect temperature. Integrating a glycol system with regular draft line cleaning ensures optimal performance and beer quality.
Beer Line Cleaning Methods and Results
There are two unique methods employed to clean draft beer dispensing systems:
- Pressurized Cleaning – cleaning agent is put into a container and forced through the beer lines by use of a hand pump or gas pressure (CO2 or compressed air). Recommended for clean picnic pumps, direct draw, and short-draw systems of less than twenty feet in length.
- Re-circulating Cleaning – A motorized electric pump is used to force cleaning agent through the beer lines. The best choice for long draw systems that are over twenty feet.
Cleaning process includes;
- Flush the beer from the lines with water. This eliminates beer from the lines so as not to dilute the cleaning properties of the chemical.
- Clean the lines with the appropriate solution. Allow chemicals to circulate or soak in the lines for at least ten minutes. Always be sure to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations on proper mix ratio, correct temperature, and ample contact time.
- Flush the chemical from the lines with water. Then, check the pH level with a pH tester or litmus paper to ensure no cleaning solution remains in the lines. Reconnect the kegs and, run some beer through the faucet, and discard to make sure all the lines are completely refilled with beer.
Testing for cleanliness
The most common ways to test for draft system cleanliness:
- Taste by a trained taster can reveal signs of bacterial infection. Note that bacterial contamination begins long before it can be detected by taste. Preventative maintenance is necessary.
- ATP (adenosine triphosphate) testing using a luminometer measures the presence of actively growing microorganisms. Cleanliness can be verified, but it will not differentiate between beer-spoiling organisms and organic material such as yeast.
- Swab sample testing and growing microbial colonies is the only way to truly identify specific microorganisms that are growing in a draft system.
Visually inspecting for cleanliness.
- A cleaning log should be present and visible to the operator, employees, and distributor.
- Inspect the inside, outside, and vent holes of each faucet.
- Inspect the exterior of the coupler. Kegs can be untapped to allow the entire coupler to be inspected.
- Inspect sight glass, vent, and FOB stop. The sight glass should be completely clear.
- Inspect the flexible tubing in the draft system cooler. The tubing should be clear and free of color-staining. Vinyl jumper lines should be replaced every two years.
- Inspect the grate and body of the spill tray.
- All components should be free of any build-up. Vinegar or butter aromas will indicate a bacterial infection.
Final thoughts on a clean draft beer system
If you care about quality draft beer and a great patron experience, it’s important for all operators to ensure your beer lines are adequately maintained. Regular draft beer line cleaning not only preserves the flavor and quality of your beer but also extends the life of your draft system. Choose beer line cleaning methods that work for you, but make line cleaning a priority, and your customers will taste the difference with every pour.
Our patented software automatically stores your beer and wine system’s records, so you can view each time your beer line is cleaned.
Regular draft line cleaning is a non-negotiable practice for serving great-tasting beer. It not only preserves the flavor and quality of your beer but also extends the life of your draft system. By making line cleaning a priority, you ensure your customers taste the difference with every pour.
