Sanitizing a bottle system?

#1: Post by **Zoey** » June 1st, 2016, 12:00 am

I've got a quick question for those of you who use a bottle or keg system to supply your machine with water:

I'm using a Korny keg to supply my machine with water. I vented one side of the system by simply connecting a keg ball lock to the gas line port, so in essence, it's open to air.

Do you periodically sanitize the system? If so, how often and what do you use as a disinfectant? Do you only clean the vessel, or do you also run the cleaning solution through the supply lines?

Cheers!

June 3rd, 2016, 2:36 pm

Bump.....

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

#3: Post by **nuketopia** » June 3rd, 2016, 2:52 pm

Way back when I was brewing beer and kegging in 5-gallon korny kegs, I would sanitize them with sodium percarbonate (oxygen) powder and hot water.

Stainless and chlorine don't get along.

I know commercial water is ozoned when bottling to keep it sanitary.

#4: Post by **yakster** » June 3rd, 2016, 2:53 pm

No relevant experience except to say avoid bleach with stainless steel.

You might find some answers in home brew forums or a home brew shop where there'd be more people using Korny kegs and wanting to sanitize them.

#5: Post by **hankua** » June 6th, 2016, 11:29 am

I bought a bottle of Idophor for general sanitizing, one ml per liter.
http://www.amazon.com/Iodophor-Sanitize ... dophor+4oz

#6: Post by **Dayglow** » June 6th, 2016, 11:45 am

Homebrewer here. There are a number of options you can use for sanitizing. If you are planning to run the sanitizer through the machine you limit your choices considerably to only non-foaming acid sanitizers. If you are flushing the keg and just the lines you could use a few things:
- Oxygen based cleaners are good for cleaning, but not really sanitzing.
- Iodophor is good for sanitizing, but it bleaches things on contact and can stain clear lines.
- Chlorine based cleaners (bleach) are also not good since they will bleach surfaces, potentially damage your plastics and rubbers, and leave an odor/taste for a little while.
- Sani-Star by Five Star is the best that I've found. It is an acid sanitizer that requires brief surface contact times and is suitable for many forms of plastic, stainless, aluminum, brass, copper, etc.

Hope this helps.

June 6th, 2016, 6:43 pm

Excellent information everyone, and I appreciate it very much!

I don't see sain-Star listed on the Five Star Chemicals site:

http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/brewer ... /products/

#8: Post by **HBchris** » June 6th, 2016, 7:18 pm

Haven't tried this, but perhaps some distilled vinegar and hot water. Then a good rinse, for a simple natural way to clean.

#9: Post by **leon** » June 6th, 2016, 9:04 pm

Zoey wrote:Excellent information everyone, and I appreciate it very much!

I don't see sain-Star listed on the Five Star Chemicals site:

http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/brewer ... /products/

Starsan (foaming) and Saniclean (non-foaming) are the two products on that page that you would want to consider. It doesn't sound like you're planning to run the sanitizer through the actual espresso machine, so Starsan is a good choice. I used it extensively when I was a homebrewer and it was by far my favorite of the sanitizers that I tried.

It should be available at any homebrew supply shop, like this one: https://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/ ... n-cleaning

June 6th, 2016, 9:53 pm

Thanks Chris. I'm not terribly wild about using chemicals for fear of what they may do to either myself, or to my equipment. In an ideal world, I would be able to send a sanitizing solution through the entire system, and it not affect either.

Thanks for clarification Leon!

I'm a little taken aback that this topic doesn't seem to be discussed anywhere else on HB? I'm sure there are several people using a bottle system of sorts, and I would imagine that they need a periodical cleaning?