Cheap Beer Line Cleaner System

If you'd ask me about cleaning my beer lines, I'd say I do it about every 2 weeks, until I really think about it.  In reality it's about every 5 to 6 weeks.  Whats worse, I think I clean my lines more frequently than most other homebrewers.  (Currently I'm replacing my keggor which allows me to see how important regular cleaning is.)  I have 4 taps on my old system.  2 of which have stainless shanks.  The other 2 are chrome plated brass.  Let just say, don't purchase chrome plated brass if you are building a keggor. (they are replaced on the new system)  No matter what you have, cleaning is essential to good beer. 

My cleaning ways of the past was filling up a scotty keg with Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) and running it thru my system into a bucket.  This system, easy as it is, didn't allow me to re-circle the cleaning liquid as directed on the bottle.  It was a one time shot thru the line, shank and then out the Perlicks. If a line needed extra cleaning, I was out of luck.  Having to blend more BLC into the keg and waste more Co2.  I needed something better.


I found these on HomebrewFinds.com (mine appear to be from a different vendor but look like the same product without the scratches) a couple months back.  A liquid quick connect with a barb or PET screw cap (for 2 litter soda bottles)  How cool is that? Seems so simple yet so practical for brewing applications.  I quickly picked up 3 of them for 12 bucks each, which I now see at about 10 bucks each.  Shipping from China took about 15 days. 

Next I picked up about 3 feet of 1/4 beer line and attached it to the barb.  Since this was low pressure I didn't even use a pipe clamp.  The end of the beer line was fitted with a plastic connector that goes into my aquarium pump.  (Which I purchased two of off Amazon for 12 bucks each)  This makes taking this beer line on and off easy for storage. 

I grabbed one of my white three gallon food grade plastic buckets from Lowes and marked on the outside the recommended amount of Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) to water ratios.  I ended up having to cut a notch out of the top of bucket to fit under my shotgun double beer towers, so I didn't have to hold it at an angle. Which ended up being about an inch down by 3 inches wide.

Now that the bucket is filled, I just walk up to my keggor and quick connect the black liquid line to the stainless quick connect and turn on the pump.  Allowing it to run for about 15 minutes on each tab.

After, I run water thru the lines for about 10 mins.  Easy as that. Clean beer lines with minimal effort.  My keggor sits outside on a balcony, with 6 hours of solid sunlight, so with the ease of this set up I've started cleaning the lines every Saturday morning as the kids watch TV. 

In total this whole set up cost me under $25.00.  Including the pump, stainless connector and new beer lines.