sterilizing corny keg

[Ian]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a little advice here regarding sterilizing a corny keg. Generally when I have done that I have sterilised the keg in the usual way then turned on the CO2 and attached the handgun and pumped some sterilising fluid through the system, followed by a rinse and pumping some plain water through. Then rack the beer from the fermentor into the keg.

  Now, I already have a batch of beer in my keg in the kegerator with CO2 attached and conditioning/carbonating. I have a second brew approaching the end of fermentation and I want to put it into a second corny keg that I have and use a device with a CO2 bomb that I was given to get some CO2 into it to displace the air - then it would sit at room temperature until the first beer batch is finished and I can refrigerate the second brew and attach the CO2.

  So I need to sterilize this second corny keg but, since I shan't be pumping beer through the lines I am a touch concerned that that wee pipe that goes down to the bottom of the keg to slurp the beer from the bottom for delivery might remain un sterilised. Do you think this is a problem? Any comment welcome.

Cheers,

Ian

[Matt Smith]

That's right, I remember almost passing out from lack of breathing ability when I used that stuff..it was horrible.

[Reviled]

Yeh, saying its bad for your lungs is almost an understatement, if its been shaken up, when u take the lid off u almost need a gas mask!

[Matt Smith]

Thanks guys. Chris, sounds like a pretty good idea, I think i'll go for some napisan though, I'm really only brewing every 2-3 weeks so I don't need a huge amount. Maybe napisan for keg washing and general cleaning plus some PBW at some stage to use sparingly for removing kettle stone from time to time should do the trick.

[Haish]

Vinegar or oxalic acid work nicely on beerstone, and they're cheaper than pbw. They don't clean though...

[Matt Smith]

Thanks ! I'll give it a go next time

[Pilgrim]

Forget the NapiSan, Clorox Oxi Magic is more than twice as strong (so only use half as much) and is only about $1 extra per Kg. The active ingedient in both is Sodium Percarbonate. NapiSan 14%, Oxy Magic 33%. Available from Pak-n-Save and other leading supermarkets.

[Matt Smith]

Cheers for the tip. I ended up with a countdown branded napisan which is around 30% aswell and about half the price of napisan

[jt]

Yea, I have that too. It gets bought for the laundry but is also used by me.