DIY Beer Line Cleaning System

So, how often do you clean the beer lines in your kegerator/keezer? Some resources say every two weeks, others say at every keg change. Either way, it can be little bit of a pain or chore to do this task. You can buy kits with hand pumps a tail pieces to attach to your draft system, and while inexpensive, they take a lot of work and babysitting to do a thorough job. Commercial systems cost big bucks, and let you do several lines at a time. Cool, but not practical for the pocketbook.

PumpI’m not the best DIY’er, but I am willing to venture out a little in the brewery, so I did some thinking about a way to pump beer line cleaner though my keezer hoses and taps, and back into a recirculating tank. Then I came across a suggestion in a forum to use a condensate pump from a furnace or air conditioner. I ran into the furnace room to look at mine, and knew instantly that this was the solution I was looking for. I just needed a way to hook it up to my draft lines that connect to my kegs.

Coupler between pump and tap linesNext I needed a liquid corney post that I could attache a hose to from the condensate pump on one side, and a liquid connection to on the other end. I did not know what it would be called, so after googling a bit, I found something called a stainless steel carbonation cap with dip tube.

I bought the stuff I needed for less than $60 (including tubing) and have a working system that takes only 10 minutes to set up and get running every time I need to clean my lines. I just add solution, and let it run for 15 minutes or more per line. Set it and go. It takes 2 minutes to switch to the next line. When done, I use it to rinse with clean water, then run some sanitizer through the lines for the next keg connection.

Here it is in action…