Beer Forum

I've got my keg sitting in the basement (on the floor, no fridge) as it is about 55 degrees this time of year. Yesterday I went down to pour a beer and happened to look at the tap outlet and noticed it looked about half clogged. As the glass was just about full, the "plug" shot out into the glass and it looked like a half of a hop pellet, so it was obviously a wad of mold.

How do you folks keep this from happening? Should I be taking the serving line and tap off the keg every few days and soaking in pbw/sanitizer or what? I was thinking of maybe putting a mason jar filled with One Step next to the keg and keeping the picnic tap in that between pours? I'd probably have to change out the One Step weekly I imagine?

During the summer, I have a beer fridge in the shop with tap handles mounted to the door. Any ideas how to keep mold out of the end of the faucet in that case?

There are faucet brushes to use for cleaning the exposed part of the faucet, spray some Star San up in there, give it a scrub and spray again to flush out any little bits. If you do this after every time you pull a pint, there shouldn't be much there in the way of food for mold, and it will sanitize anything that is there.

or make sure you are refilling your glass regularly enough so the mold doesnt get a chance to take hold!

Sparge Pervert wrote:or make sure you are refilling your glass regularly enough so the mold doesnt get a chance to take hold!

i vote this solution!! i saw somewhere the faucet caps that were of a size that should fit the picnic tap's nozzle. i only use mine when i need to flush kegs, or take one out of the kegerator and dispense at say a bbq then i disassemble and BLC and star san her!

When I am using a picnic tap for an extended period of time (2+ days), I simply drop the tap into a jar of Star San between pours. I do change out the Star San every couple days.

Periodically, I disassemble and soak my picnic taps in an oxyclean or PBW solution. They are easy to take apart. Just use a screwdriver to turn the slot in the top. Be sure to pay attention to the orientation of the parts as you take it apart. You don't want the post in there backwards. (I've done research on that problem and can verify that it won't work right that way. ).

Wayne

Thanks for the ideas...dropping the tap into a jar of sanitizer after using was my first idea, so I may just give that a try. I'm not sure if some sort of cap alone would do the trick as there would still be a bit of beer at the end of the tap and air trapped in there with it. The only thing that might not be there with a cap in place would be light, but I think mold can grow in the dark...

Yes, I've been slow to tap this keg, so I may be creating my own problems...It's been in the keg for 4 weeks and have only pulled off 3 or 4 pints, and none for the last week or so as I had some surgery last Friday so I laid off the beer before and post-surgery to let the Vicodin exit my system so I didn't drink myself into a coma.

I wash, soak, and rinse my kegs in hot PBW after each use. I also push the PBW soln. out my picnic taps to keep them clean in between uses. When I sanitize my kegs with iodophor, I push that through the taps as well before connecting to a full keg of ready to drink beer.

I have yet to see mold growing in my lines. Probably helps that I keep both taps, lines, and kegs in my chest freezer around 35 deg F.

brewinhard wrote:I wash, soak, and rinse my kegs in hot PBW after each use. I also push the PBW soln. out my picnic taps to keep them clean in between uses. When I sanitize my kegs with iodophor, I push that through the taps as well before connecting to a full keg of ready to drink beer.

I have yet to see mold growing in my lines. Probably helps that I keep both taps, lines, and kegs in my chest freezer around 35 deg F.

Yup...I haven't had trouble (yet) with my regular tap faucets on my beer fridge, but this time of year, my basement is nearly perfect temperature for ale serving (55F), so I imagine this is not cool enough to slow down the mold when in "slow" drinking mode