Well, I'll never take cleaning my beer line/tap for granted again.
Usually I flush the oxi cleaning stuff used for my kegs through the beer line as part of the process.
That will now change forever.
When I was about to finish off my pint last night I noticed something black bobbing around in the bottom of the glass. Never seen anything similar before so passed it off as "one of those things". Later that evening something made me check the tap on the keg. Got some tissue and bunged it up the hole and gave it a wipe. What came out was disgusting, black slime and lumps of it too. The line was removed from the keg and dismantled. Line was fine, maybe a little yeast build up but nothing major. I use picnic/party taps, never had an issue with them and they've served me well. The tap however was hanging. I took it apart and it was full of the black slime. Gave everything a proper clean and discovered the flaw in picnic/party taps. The silicone (or whatever it's made from) bung that gets retracted to allow flow had a small split in it allowing a build-up of product over time that my flush through simply wasn't clearing.
I didn't notice a change in the beer as over a length of time the changes are subtle.
As luck would have it, I have a spare tap. Cleaned and now fitted ready for use. New taps have been ordered and I've even invested in some of that fancy Brewmaster 2 line. More resistant to yeast build up they say.
So lesson learned, I will now dismantle the tap each time the keg is changed.
To those of you that use these taps, if you don't already, strip them down regularly.
Cheers Tom
Usually I flush the oxi cleaning stuff used for my kegs through the beer line as part of the process.
That will now change forever.
When I was about to finish off my pint last night I noticed something black bobbing around in the bottom of the glass. Never seen anything similar before so passed it off as "one of those things". Later that evening something made me check the tap on the keg. Got some tissue and bunged it up the hole and gave it a wipe. What came out was disgusting, black slime and lumps of it too. The line was removed from the keg and dismantled. Line was fine, maybe a little yeast build up but nothing major. I use picnic/party taps, never had an issue with them and they've served me well. The tap however was hanging. I took it apart and it was full of the black slime. Gave everything a proper clean and discovered the flaw in picnic/party taps. The silicone (or whatever it's made from) bung that gets retracted to allow flow had a small split in it allowing a build-up of product over time that my flush through simply wasn't clearing.
I didn't notice a change in the beer as over a length of time the changes are subtle.
As luck would have it, I have a spare tap. Cleaned and now fitted ready for use. New taps have been ordered and I've even invested in some of that fancy Brewmaster 2 line. More resistant to yeast build up they say.
So lesson learned, I will now dismantle the tap each time the keg is changed.
To those of you that use these taps, if you don't already, strip them down regularly.
Cheers Tom
Brewmaster 2 line should turn up tomorrow.
