10 Things I wish I had when I started brewing! PART 2

What (are the 10 items) you wish you had when you started brewing and keg dispensing? PART 2


...Part 2!

 

4. Keg Cleaner

Once you do have kegs, you can clean and sanitise them as a background activity if you have a keg cleaner system. Keg cleaners are not expensive, are basically just a submersible pump a stand and bucket but a well made keg cleaner will do the job of cleaning your kegs while you get on with life. Set an alarm on your phone, switch out the keg, and keep going. There’s no need to scrub and shake the kegs by hand. You simply let your cleaning solution, hot water and turbulence of the keg washer do the work for you . It’s super easy and makes brewery life 1000% better.


5. Quickie

Until the Quickie Tap was invented, getting a little sample out of a ball lock keg was tedious. Sure, you can use a picnic/bronco tap or some other hand held device, but the bottom line is that you have to clean the line tap and disconnect again after use and then purge it with gas to keep it sanitary until the next use. With the Quickie, you simply slide the poppet depressing nib over any liquid ball lock post. When you push down, it serves. When you stop pushing down on it, it stops serving. Remove it from the post. Run it under a sink tap and sanitise it before your next use. Perfect for cheaky keg serves, mini kegs, portable dispensing and super useful in cleaning when you want to run a bit of sanitiser or cleaner through your post assembly and dip tube. It’s just too easy and handy. You’ll have it on the side of your sink within arm’s reach.
Seriously, this was the simplest little invention that was just so obviously necessary yet nobody had anything like it until we came up with it. A sample tap that is a poppet depressing nib. It was perfect.
The first time I saw one of our engineers named Beardy Nick use one, he went walked over with an empty glass to a keg that was sitting out on the floor, did something with his back turned and then turned to face us with a full glass in his hand and had slipped whatever he used to fill it with back into his pocket. We were all like, “whoa, what was that you just snuck back into your pocket there?” and he was like “oh nothing.”
It was just perfect. We had started thinking about it just a few nights before and he had mocked one up himself to use that night.
The Quickie is now in heavy use for everyone who can get them for their ball lock brewery equipment.


6. Carbonation Line Cleaning Cap

Once you have kegs and a kegerator, these little bad boys are a must have.
Want to pour beer into any PET bottle from your tap and bang a little bit of gas pressure on top of it. Use a Carbonation Cap.
Want to put a bit of beer line cleaner into a PET bottle and run the solution through the liquid disconnects on your tap system lines? Use a Carbonation Cap.
Want to drain the liquid left in your picnic tap or liquid to liquid transfer line? Use a couple Carbonation Caps.
Want to bottle a couple beers under pressure so you don’t lose carbonation filling? Use a carbonation cap

The under side of the Carbonation Cap has a 6mm barb so you can run tubing down the inside of any PET bottle to create a diptube/spear.
The Ball Lock Post side of the Carbonation Cap is universal so it’s able to accept BOTH types of disconnects for gas or liquid.
Very handy little device that is good to have at least 3 of in any ball lock equipped home brewery or kegerator


7. Universal disconnect joiner

These little beauties have been around for ages but often get overlooked because a lot of people don’t really understand how handy they are to have around in your brewery and dispensing areas.

Being universal on both ends means they can accept both gas and liquid disconnects, so like the carbonation cap you can use these across a heap of brewery and kegerator processes.
You can connect liquid disconnects with these and loop your taps together with growler filler inserts connected to a bit of tubing to create a cleaning pass that moves your line cleaning solution through your whole tap system set up in one pass.
That’s why it’s convenient to have a few of these, and they’re cheaper than chips.
I love mine for the convenience of being able to drain my homebrewery liquid to liquid transfer lines, clean them out and then leave them full of gas

To do this I simply connect two of them, one to each end of the liquid to liquid transfer line. That helps me evacuate the beer left in the line after transfer.
Then I run hot rinse water through the transfer line from my sink tap.
Then I spray a bit of ethanol sanitiser through the transfer line and pass it from one side and out the other.
Then I hook up a gas disconnect to one side and blow a bit of CO2 through the transfer line before I disconnect the joiners.
This is how I store my transfer leads. Sanitised. Full of Gas. Able to be used next time without fear of contamination. Damn these little connectors are useful.  

end of Part 2...