| The
first thing I do is to half fill a white bucket with hot
tap water, then stir in the proper amount of PBW (Five
Star 'Powdered Brewery Wash'). I put in 5 tablespoons
because I intend to finally end up with a total volume of
5 gallons of solution. It is much easier to carry half a bucket of solution instead of the entire 5 gallons; besides, the keg is too tall to fit under my sink faucet. Then I take the stainless steel spoon and stir to mix in and dissolve the PBW. This is better then adding 5 tablespoons to a keg, it would be hard to stir and one can end up with concentrated PBW granules at the bottom - not so good. |
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| Now I carry the half full bucket to the cleaning stand. I have the pump configured to move the solution to the red top keg. I could simply have placed everything at ground level, but later I will let gravity do some work for me. |  |
| Now I close the pump rollers and begin to pump until I get the flow going. |  |
| A few short seconds later, I open the pump and gravity does the rest while I have a beer and check out CNNFN. This is why I like the "Easy Load" type pump head, just flip the lever and the tubing is unobstructed. I go back and get another half bucket of hot water, this time no PBW is added, just hot water. I repeat the filling procedure. |  |
| Well, how about that! A full keg of hot PBW solution. And, no spill on my shoes and socks! |  |
| After
the solution has done it's job on the first keg, I now
switch the tubing to the liquid out post connectors and
move solution to the next keg. Then I can just repeat
this until all the kegs are cleaned. I could lift the first keg and use gravity, but I like to save my back for other things, so I just move it all with the pump. By moving the solution through the liquid fittings, I have now cleaned both long dip tubes, the connectors & poppets, and the tubing, all at the same time. When I am done, I can pump the solution back into the white bucket and discard or save it for further use. |
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