Keg Washer

[Liam Callaghan]

I hatched a plan to make my kegs a bit easier to wash along with carboys and hopefully bottles.  Managed to pick up an awesome pump for pennies on TM so got into it on the weekend while beers were boiling and mashing.

I just need a strong collar to lift the kegs up 6" or so, hoping a plant pot will do the job.  I had to make some anchor connections to hold the keg down as the first one was lifted with the water pressure, the pump is a little over powered for my needs :p  I am not that keen to try it with a glass carboy yet, I think it might pop it, depends if the air and water can get out as fast as the water is going in...  

For the carboys and bottles I think I'll build a stand off to one side with a smaller pipe arrangement so I can reduce the flow to a more controlled rate.  Might make a good pet bottle rocket launcher for the neighbours kids to play with too :)

Doodles on the pad for my future yeast culturing cabinet and extraction hood :p

Main outlet pipe and sub pipes for keg inlets, I can throttle the flow on the main pipe with a perforated cap and force more water into the other pipes.  Not made the cap yet, no need to do today what you can do tomorrow...

I'll replace the galve fittings with plastic when I can find them.  Nice little pump, recircs all the cleaning fluid so I can clean multiple kegs with the same wash.  Not tried it with acid yet but it should be fine...

First time I switched it on the water jet went higher than the house haha, first keg wasn't too far behind that either...

[Vesku]

That's nice, been thinking how to make one too.

I might use lower pressure and some sort of rotating brush system driven by the water, but I guess that a powerful enough pump will make the mechanical contact unnecessary ;)

[Druid]

So what's the story/specs on the pump Liam?

I'm not too up to speed on the sort of pumps that can deliver that sort of pressure and handle the chemicals.

[Liam Callaghan]

I'll dig them out and post them Druid, not sure on the specs myself otherwise I'd have picked up a smaller one.  Should be no issue with steriliser, I just have to check with the acid wash on parts but can't see it being an issue.  It cleans them out beautifully though, I can load and leave it running for 20-30 minutes a pop and they are spotless. Going to get a few more dirty ones from Hallertau in the next few weeks and see how it cleans them up.  

Might be pretty good for large scale imports of cornies :p  Be nice to see them cheap on the market...