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Cleaning , Reconditioning and Using a
Cornelius Keg |
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Cornelius Kegs are Stainless Steel
Soda kegs that restaurants use to
dispense soda from ...as technology
advanced the soda industry switched
from using kegs like these over to a
plastic bag/bladder system . So
wholesalers ran around and bought up
as many kegs they could find for
Homebrew use.
These Kegs are Heaven sent for Folks
living in small homes ,RV's & the
like, they're
super easy to clean & use and you
don't have to mess about cleaning a
bunch of bottles and worrying about
breakage.... plus since 5-gallon
kegs of this type measure out at
approx. 26 inches high and 8.5
inches in diameter this means they
don't take up much storage space.
...they're very lightweight too.
We used and carried 2 of these kegs
in our Bus 'Home' because bottles
are easy to break and crack and when
you work out the math of bottling
your beer ...5 gallons of homebrew
beer would take approx 54 12-ounce
bottles , so that's
not that big of deal space wise ,but
when you're watching your fresh
water consumption ,like we all have
to do in many situations ...cleaning
and sanitizing 54 12 ounce bottles
uses more water than it takes to
clean and sanitize a keg . |
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What
we mean by that is all good home brewers
,after pouring out a bottle of beer will
give the bottle a rinse to make it easier
when they clean & sanitize and rebottle
again.... so this means you're using more
water to do the process than you do with a
keg.
(IE you clean & sanitize a keg once , with
bottles you're basically cleaning them
twice)
If water consumption isn't a problem by all
means go for bottles if you want , it's a
very old low-tech and affordable way to go
about this...because we believe in never
taking anything for granted , we carry a
small light-weight bottle capper and a few
bags of caps for times when CO2 might not be
readably available .
We go on about water & cleaning a lot
because this is one of the most important
details of doing this right.... but since
people living a nomadic existence tend to
camp around streams and such , this makes it
easy for us to clean our Kegs & bottles
without having to draw off our water tanks.
All you need to do is fill a 3-5 gallon pot
full of stream ,pond or river water , boil
it up good to purify it and clean your
equipment with that. It's very important to
remember long before mankind came up with
fancy sanitizers & such they were producing
great wines and beer without that stuff
...so this is perfectly possible to do this
without feeling the need to go overboard
about the process. ( if you're going to
clean your equipment in the outdoors only
use a good quality natural bio-safe soap)
Before you use your Boiled up water for
cleaning , rinse out the keg & bottles with
some water from the stream or such to loosen
up the spent sugars and yeast you'll find
there and pour it out in the grass of by a
tree. Since this is just pure natural stuff
,you wont harm anything by doing this. You
can even pour this stuff right back in a
stream or river and wont be polluting
anything.
NOTE: Kegs are also great for aging many
types of wine. We love Beaujolais and a few
fruit wines , these types of wine only take
about 3 months aging time so they work great
in kegs . What we do and always works for us
is load the keg with the wine and give it
just enough CO2 to seal it up... then once
or twice a week during the aging process
give the keg another shot of CO2 to make
sure everything's sealed up right.
This is important because air in your keg
equals oxidation which is not a good thing
.Oxidation causes a wet cardboard taste &
smell to your brew or wine ...making it
yucky. Also air will spoil the brew very
fast.
When it comes time to drink your wine , your
snap on your tap and because you're not
going for a sparkling wine you give it just
enough CO2 to make the wine flow out the
tap.
But if you want a sparkling wine all you
have to do after the wines finished aging is
use the same charging process you do with
beer, lots of people do this and make some
great sparkling wines.
How do
you keep your beer cold in kegs ? If you
have the space and wanted to get ultra
serious about this ,you buy a small
refrigerator to store the keg in or do it
the easy inexpensive way ..and tap off a
half or full gallon of your homebrew into a
screw top container and put that into your
fridge to cool off. That's how we do it .
To give you an idea on how to
go about using and cleaning a
5-gallon
Cornelius Keg here
are some pics and
info .
Important
Note ,NEVER USE Bleach to Clean your
Stainless Brew Pots ,implements or
Kegs ...it will Pit the stainless
making it very hard to clean and
sanitize . |
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Cleaning
and replacing the
O-Rings on a
Cornelius Keg |
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We use the
, Ball Lock style of Keg.... you clean
the pin-lock type in the same manner.
( Note: It's a good idea to change the
O-Rings on your Keg every year ...)
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First thing you'll want to do is release
any pressure in the Keg...you do this by
pulling up on the split-ring that's
attached to the pressure release valve
on the top of the kegs lid. |
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Lift up on the Kegs Lid
locking lever ...hold the lever in one hand
and push downward on the lid to unseal it.
Now take the lid out....
To take the Kegs Valves off you'll need a
7/8 inch wrench
( open ended & closed 12
points or ratcheting ) |
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It doesn't matter which
valve you take off first ...but we'll start
with the Gas line 'In ' Valve.
Use the Closed-end of the 7/8 inch wrench to take
out the valve and pull the small tube insert
out also.... |
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Now take off the
Out-Valve....and pull the long insert tube
out.... |
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Tap each Valve lightly so
that the small inset with spring falls out
....Note: Not All Kegs allow you to easily
remove the insert/spring , so carefully take
some object ,like a small pointed screw
driver and push down on the top of the valve
(Look at Pic on Right )
Then wash all the parts , valves, lid
and tubes in hot soapy water ...then rinse
very well. |
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After all the valves and
parts are rinsed well ....put some sanitizer
in a clean bowl ,fill with water and soak
all the valves ,lid & new O-rings in the
solution for approx.10 minutes.
For a Sanitizer I use "Star San" put out by
Five Star.
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Now's the time to
replace your O-Rings ...
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These two pictures show
the O-Rings you'll be replacing ....
Replace the big one on the Lid ...and the 2
smaller ones on each valve setup.
When you're done replacing the O-Rings , put
the valves & lid back into the sanitizing
solution . |
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Basic Cleaning of The Keg
Note: always Clean &
Sanitize your Keg after it's empty of brew .
Then you can store them away.
When you're ready to Keg again , you don't
need to wash the keg out ,just use a
sanitizer.
This is also a good time to clean your
Siphon Hoses ...rinse them out with water ,
then run a sanitizer through them.
To Clean your Tap Hoses that have old beer
left in them ...attach the line to the Keg
( with sanitizer in it )and pressurize the Keg with CO2....open the
tap and let sanitizer run through the Tap
line till its clean.
Here's a
cleaning tip .... when you buy a used keg from a
Home brew shop , they typically have a tiny bit of
soda residue left in them...which even after washing
tends to smell a bit. So , the way to deal with this
is....wash and rinse the keg very well , then add
one cup of baking soda to the keg and fill the keg
up with warm water . Put the lid on, give the keg a
few shakes and let it sit overnight . This will
freshen the keg . Next day empty the keg and rinse
it well. Then you'll Sanitize it.
NEVER USE Bleach to Clean your Stainless Brew Pots
,implements or Kegs ...it will Pit the stainless
making it hard to clean and sanitize .
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There are Cleaners sold
that are specific for cleaning stainless
....but for the first part of this process
we just use regular dish washing soap and
hot water.
If you have a small enough hand , reach
inside the keg and use a non-scratching
plastic scrubby to clean the upper parts of
the keg.....also clean around all the top
openings.
Then use your Carboy/Keg cleaning Brush to
give the inside a good scrubbing. |
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Now dip the Kegs Feeder
tube into the Hot soapy water and run your
feeder tube brush into the tube a few times
to clean it out.
When you've got everything clean ...rinse
the keg & Tube out with water a few times to
remove all the soap residue ...
Next put some Sanitizer into the keg and
fill it up with cool water to the very
top....
Lots of homebrewers , just put their
sanitizer in with a gallon of water , seal
up the keg and shake it up to clean the
keg...this works just as well as filling the
keg full.
This is just the way I do it ... |
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After you put your
sanitizing solution into the keg reinstall
the valves (tightly) and lock the lid on...
Now lay the keg on its side and rock it
about a bit ....
Lift it back upright and let it sit for
15-20 minutes .... |
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Empty the Keg of the
sanitizer ... if your brand calls for
rinsing the keg ,do so. The brand we use
doesn't need to be rinsed out , we just
drain the keg and let it air dry for a few
minutes before filling the keg with brew.
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Using
your
Cornelius Keg System |
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We use the
, Ball Lock style of Keg ...but the Pin-Lock
is used the same way , it just attaches to
the valves a bit differently .
First we'll show the important parts of this
system ,then explain how to use them.
Note: You can refill your
CO2 tank at any shop that services Fire
Extinguishers
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Here's a few pictures of
our 5 lb. CO2 tank and Regulator
The Pic on the right shows the important
parts of the regulator...
You have a High-Pressure gauge that tells
you how much CO2 you have in your Tank
You have a Low-Pressure gauge that tells you
how many PSI you have set for your Keg
And you have the Regulators Set/Adjustment
Screw , which adjusts the amount of CO2 (PSI)
you'll be using.
There's also a open/close valve on the Gas
Line out hose. |
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The Picture on the
right shows the in/out valves on the
top of our Kegs.
All the kegs we've run into have
these valves marked so you can tell
the difference .
The "IN" Valve is where you'll
attach your CO2 hose
The "OUT" Valve is where you'll
attach your Beer Tap hose |
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Ball Lock Fittings
Here are a couple of pictures that show what
the fittings look like that attach to the
kegs we have.
The way you attach a ball lock fitting to
the valve is ...you pull up on the little
spring activated collar on the
fitting....push the fitting all the way down
on the Valve and let go of the Collar.
This locks the fitting to the Valve.
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Using The System .....
1: When you fill your Keg with "Green" Beer
,you're going to want to pressurize the Keg
a bit to lock the lid and replace any air in
the keg that will create oxidation problems
with CO2 Gas .
How we do this is , we attach the Gas Hose
to the KEG , set the regulator at 10 lbs.
PSI and hold open the pressure release valve
...and let the CO2 push the air out. We'll
do this a number of times to make sure all
the air bubbles have made it to the top and
are expelled from the Keg.
We also do this with Wine & Mead that we Keg
up.
2 : After the Beer has Aged in the Keg for 2
weeks , we open the pressure release valve
to let out any built up fermentation gases
...then we set the regulator at 20-25 lbs
PSI and let the beer carbonate for 3-4 days
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3: For dispensing beer we
set the regulator at 8-10 lbs PSI
For dispensing wine that we don't want
carbonated , we set the regulator at 5 lbs.
PSI
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First attach the Gas line
to the "In" valve on the keg ....turn the
handle on the CO2 tank all the way open
....make sure the little red open/close
valve on the out line on the regulator is in
its open position
Then using your fingers or a screw driver ...screw the regulators
set-screw in till the Low-Pressure gauge
reaches the desired Lbs. PSI ... |
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If the Beer ,Wine or Mead
is ready to Drink
Attach the Tap Line to the 'Out' valve on
the Keg ... |
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To turn off the Regulator
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Back the set-screw out , until the low
pressure gauge reads "0" ....turn the handle
to close off the CO2 Bottle .... |
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