Keg Washers – Build your own Part 4 – Trial set up and testing
OK, it’s time to do a trial set-up with a keg to make sure everything goes together smoothly.
• First, place the Reservoir and Manifold Board in the area where you will be doing your keg cleaning.
• The Reservoir should be set on top of an inverted plastic milk crate. NOTE: I have not specified any particular method for propping or mounting the Manifold Board because it will be different in every brewery depending on your layout. With a little ingenuity, you could probably mount everything on a cart for easy portability and storage.
• Make sure all valves on the Manifold Board are CLOSED.
• Feed the free end of the DRAIN LINE into or near a floor drain – you may need to weigh it down to keep it from jumping around during discharge.
• Feed the free end of the RETURN LINE through the intact handle hole on the Reservoir and down into the bottom of the Reservoir.
• Use the “S” hook to secure the RETURN LINE to the pipe in the bottom of the Reservoir.
• Now connect the Keg Connector to the keg and flip the keg over so that it is standing upside-down on top of two inverted plastic milk crates, with the handle of the Keg Connector centered between the crates, and the FEED and DISCHARGE LINES draped through the gap between the crates.
• Make sure the Lines are not kinked. It may take some practice to achieve the proper positioning in one smooth “flip & place” motion, but I assure you it can be done. This is the starting position for each keg cleaning cycle. Reverse the motion to dismount the keg after cleaning.
Test Run
Once you have mastered keg positioning, you can set-up the rest of the connections for a test-run.
• Attach the Pump Inlet Port to the Sanitary Adapter on the Reservoir, either directly (the best way, if possible) or using a short length of brewery hose.
• Attach the Pump Discharge Port to the Sanitary Adapter on the ACID valve on the FEED MANIFOLD using a short length of brewery hose.
• Connect your Hot Water Supply to the WATER valve on the FEED MANIFOLD.
• Connect your CO2 line and your Compressed AIR line to the corresponding valves on the FEED MANIFOLD.
• Both AIR and CO2 should be set to about 20-25 PSI.
• OPEN the valve on the Reservoir.
• Place the Keg Connector inside the Reservoir.
• OPEN the WATER valve on the FEED MANIFOLD and fill the reservoir about 2/3 full (10 gallons) with hot water, then CLOSE the WATER valve.
• OPEN the ACID valve for a few seconds, then CLOSE (this will prime the line from the pump).
• This is a test run, so DO NOT put any acid or other cleaning agent into the Reservoir.
• Attach the Keg Connector to a keg to be cleaned and flip the keg upside down onto the milk crates.
• Perform the cleaning cycle sequence and check all connections for leaks, repair any leaks as needed.