Best Practice
'How to carry out a line clean' video guide.
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Best Practice - frequency
Everytime
A new keg is required, with a clean cloth and spray sanitiser, wipe the new surface clean.
Weekly
Soak and scrub beer taps.
Weekly
Manual scrub of beer glasses
Regular line clean
Full line clean, plus
- Soak and scrub couplers
- Non return valves on drop leads.
- Spray diluted Maxi-Enzyme on fobs and coolroom wall,
Quarterly
Thorough clean of the coolroom, including:
- Fobs (cellarboys)
- Fonts
- Wash-out line
- Coolroom walls, floor & ceiling..
Guides
Tap Cleaning
- We recommend weekly tap cleaning as a minimum (daily is fantastic), they sit in the ambient temperature which perfect conditions for bacteria to thrive.
- Add approximately 20mL of multi-enzymatic Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) per 1 Litre of hot water into food grade bucket.
- Soak the taps in Maxi-Enzyme for minimum 30 minutes, longer is ok as it is water based and non-corrosive.
- Alternate each week with the taps in the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ position, so the multi-enzymes clean all areas of the tap.
- Recommend using a small brush to give a light clean on the inside of the tap.
- Flush thoroughly with potable (tap) water.
- Recommend using protective gloves when placing your hand in the bucket, so the enzymes don’t affect your skin and the water is hot.
- Recommend wearing safety glasses to avoid any product splashing in your eyes. If this does occur, flush your eyes out thoroughly with potable water.
Line Cleaning
- We have validated our solution at 6 weeks frequency, however some of clients elect to clean monthly and 8 weekly.
- For more specific information on line cleaning, there are SOP (safe operating procedures) and guides in our downloads page.
Coupler Cleaning
- To be carried out at the same time as the line clean.
- Add approximately 30mL of multi-enzymatic Beer Line Cleaner (BLC) per 1 Litre of hot water into food grade bucket.
- Soak the taps in the multi-enzymatic BLC for minimum 30 minutes.
- Soak the couplers in the ‘open’ position, or at even better, move them to both positions whilst they are soaking so to ensure the enzymes are treating all components and areas of the coupler.
- Recommend using a small brush to give a light clean on the inside of the tap.
- Flush thoroughly with potable (tap) water.
- Recommend using protective gloves when placing your hand in the bucket, so the enzymes don’t affect your skin and the water is hot.
- Recommend wearing safety glasses to avoid any product splashing in your eyes. If this does occur, flush your eyes out thoroughly with potable water.
New Keg
- Whilst a new keg may have a ‘dust cap’ on it, it won’t prevent it from dust, moisture and temperature from harnassing some bacterial growth.
- We suggest cleaning the top of a new keg and the bottom of the the coupler each time a new keg is connected. Using either a spray sanitiser with a clean cloth or paper towel or an sanitiser wipe.
Cleaning the fittings
- Minimising any growth of bacteria is key to maximising hygiene within a coolroom.
- We often find the drop leads and its cliplok fittings don’t receive any regular hygiene maintenance, a bucket soak and brush is ideal, as often as you like… but at least quarterly.
- The fob generally has a top button so you can purge the air out and bring the float to the top, we recommend purging during the cleaning process. By purging with BLC, it will clean the lines that is full of beer that is in very close proximity to the good beer.
- The outsides of the fob, manifold and fittings attract a lot of bacterial growth, we recommend regular cleaning. A little tip is to put some BLC in a spray bottle and spray and wipe.
Beer Glass cleaning
Glass cleaning guide
You can tell a beer glass isn't "beer clean" when the newly poured beer has bubbles clinging to the inside of the glass.
The bubbles can be caused by lint or chemical residue and can indicate the glass cleaning machine requires a service.
The head on the beer will dissipate rapidly in a glass that isn't 'beer clean', and/or the foam won't cling to the side of the glass, which is called “Lacing”. When you see lacing on your glass that is a great sign that the venues glassware is clean in conjunction with clean beer lines.
To achieve the perfect pour, your glass needs to be "beer clean." This industry term means that it's clean from impurities that give C02 a place to cling to. Once the spots are removed, the beer can pours better, for its best look and taste.
Guide:
- Utilising a glass sink brush (as per picture), with a dilution of 20mL Maxi-Enzyme per 1L hot water, scrub the glasses and then place directly onto the dishwasher tray, no need to rinse. The heat of the dishwasher will further agitate the enzymes for further cleaning.
- Reverse Osmosis unit (RO) on glasswashers are recommended, the RO removes the impurities in the water.
- Use a High quality glass cleaning chemical in the dishwasher, highly concentrated is recommended, we do not recommend using a powder form product, only liquid.
- Service your glasswasher regularly (monthly is ideal), ensure technician checks that the dosing amount is correct. Over-dosing will cause chemical to stick to glass
- Glasswashing machines must be descaled regularly to achieve a good clean. If you have an RO unit then you won’t need to do this.
Cleaning the Coolroom
- Minimising any growth of bacteria is key to maximising hygiene within a coolroom.
- The washout line & fittings, coolroom floor & walls are all susceptible to bacterial growth.
- A little tip, you could use the BLC in a spray bottle, you could spray and wipe the walls and fittings regularly.
- A major quarterly clean up will keep it in great condition.
Useful tools
- Nylon bristle brushes, they come in all shapes and sizes, even toothbrushes are great.
- Pipe brushes, ideal for cleaning the inside of the taps.
- 10L or 20L food grade bucket for soaking couplers & taps.
Recommended Personal Protection
- Safety glasses glasses, the multi-enzymatic cleaner is mush safer to use than nasty caustics, but it is still very inconvenient when you get it in your eye. If you do get some multi-enzyamtic BLC in your eye, flush thoroughly.
- Safety gloves, not only avoids any potential irritation with the enzymes if you are placing your hands in a bucket of multi-enzyme BLC, but also to protect your hands from the hot water temperature.
