Beer Line Cleaning, why you must ALSO do acid cleaning.

Caution: There is a lot of awkward editing in this free informational video. We take beer very seriously, however we do not take ourselves to seriously.
The caustic chemical in quality beer line cleaner is sodium hydroxide and is used between 2 and 3% depending on the age and care of your lines. We find it a best practice to just use 3% for bi-weekly draft line maintenance. Every two weeks is prescribed by the Brewer's' Association because all the empirical and lab tests show that this is the point at which bacterial counts start really taking off. When you start going longer than two weeks the bacteria can out grow the cleaning cycle and build up slowly over time, and this can dull the bright notes of hops and sweet notes of malt. Thus, when you are regularly cleaning every 4 or more weeks, bacterial growth begins slowly building up and flavors will most definitely be muted which will lower sales. Most folks won't even know they don't like the beer, however those subtle changes are enough to make someone thing, "hmm, I guess I'm just not feeling beer today'. If the time between cleanings is chronically longer than even that you may start developing off flavors such as Diacetyl (buttery) and Acidic. This can also start happening more quickly if the couplers and faucets aren't also being maintained properly. All of these time lines are sped up if the quality of the cleaning chemical is inferior, and yes, there are a lot of chemicals on the market right now that are cheap knock offs of the real deal. If claims are to good to be true, they are to good to be true. Cutting corners on quality is the same as making the decision to start reducing revenue.
Acid (Phosphoric Acid) maintenance is performed to dissolve beer stone, and for our purposes we'll just call that Calcium Oxalate. This is a maintenance that should be performed at least once a quarter and in conjunction with caustic maintenance. If you don't regularly act to keep this at bay it will build up and cause problems in your draft, such as;
-Choking the beer line effecting the flow of beer causing foam at the faucet and a loss of revenue
-Beer stone absorbs flavors and aromas so there will be flavor creep from one beer to the next which lowers the quality and intended flavor of the beer. This equals lower sales.
-Beer stone will also hold onto cleaner and cleaner dye which makes it harder to clear all of the chemical out of the lines after cleaning and that is just dangerous
-if the problem gets bad enough flecks of this beer stone will chip away and make it into the patrons glass. Gross.
So how do you measure the chemical for use? In this example we are using Micro Matic Alkaline (Caustic) Beer Line Cleaner and Acid Beer Line Cleaner. This outline shows you how to determine how much water you will be mixing with.
For this example we'll say we have an 8 line system at 50 feet (cooler to faucet) and that we have 6 foot beer jumpers.
1.) Determine the ID (Interior Diameter) of the beer line.
1/4"ID = .33oz 5/15" ID = .5oz 3/8" ID = .75oz per foot of beer line.
2. If one beer line is 50 feet from the cooler to the faucet we multiply that by the .75oz per foot in the beer line. =37.5oz
3. Take the average length of a jumper at 6 feet and multiply that by .75oz per foot = 4.5oz (honestly, these could be made from 5/16th to save more waste at cleanings)
4. So we have 42 ounces of beer in one draft line. Multiply that by 8 beer lines to get 336oz in the draft system.
5. Figure out how many gallons the draft system is. One gallon is 128 ounces so we divide that into the 336 ounces to get 2.6 gallons.
6. In circulation maintenance you will have a reservoir that the pump draws from and returns chemical to. Lets say this reservoir is 1.4 gallons to keep math easy. This means you have a total of 5 gallons of liquid between the reservoir and the draft system.
7. You now determine how much chemical you will add to the reservoir to get the strength you want.
8. The cleaner we are using makes a 1% solution in 1 gallon of water with one Cap full of cleaner. Technically to the very top of the cap its 4 oz but to just under the gripping lip it is 3.5oz so that is what we'll use for this. (Micro Matic lists 3.33oz as the actual volume for the 1%, which is equal to 100ml)
9. With Caustic you want a 2% solution for newer and well-maintained lines. For older or poorly maintained lines you want 3%. We have just made 3% our standard. With Acid you want 1%.
10. If you are measuring by caps then you can say for a 3% Caustic Solution you need 3 caps of cleaner per gallon. Since there are 5 gallons you need 15 caps of cleaner. Or instead of caps, if one cap should represent 3.5oz, you multiply the two to get the need of 52.5oz of cleaner in the reservoir to create a 3% caustic solution.
Https://LeadersBeverage.com
Https://www.QualityDraftSystems.com

[@yvindlanggard7907]

Thanks for uploading yet another great and informative video.Cheers & Skål from Norway.

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Thanks, Øyvind Langgård! We are super stoked you found the video useful and informative and thanks so much for chiming in. -Cheers & Skål

[@emidioa1]

great and useful video!!!! Thanks from Brazil!!!

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Emidio Azevedo Fantastic!! We are so glad you found the video useful. Thanks so much for letting us know. -Cheers!

[@OldNorsebrewery]

This is a lot of useful information. Cheers

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Old Norse brewery Thanks, very glad you found use in this. We believe in better draft quality for a brighter and tastier tomorrow. That and making sure beer tastes the way the brewer intended. Our CEO Drew Larson used to be the Bev Director at the Hopleaf in Chicago. Any time a brewer or brewery rep walked in he brought a taste of their beer from the draft system to them to get their nod it tasted perfect. Cheers!

[@TileNation]

Great informative video.

[@claytonhennigan5759]

Thank y'all SO much for all of these videos. They are made extremely well and are very easy to understand. Y'all have helped me so much!Thank you.

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Hi Clayton, Thanks so much for your kind words and feedback. We are immensely pleased and proud they were able to help you out. -Many Cheers!

[@kevinswartz]

I love the thorough video, thanks! Links to purchase this cleaner for the regular guy at home? Amazon searching fails me at the moment :(

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Hi Kevin, it's surprising that a search for micro matic cleaning chemical isn't turning anything up. Here is a link directly to micro matic. Unfortunately, you must purchase 6 bottles at a time and the hazardous shipping fee really makes it expensive by the case. www.micromatic.com/beer-line-cleaning-kits/liquid-beer-line-cleaner -good luck and cheers!

[@slackjawls]

Thanks for the great videos. If you're doing a quarterly cleaning should you do caustic then acid or is the order not important?

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Hey there Slackjawls. We've always just gravitated toward caustic before the acid. Our thinking is that this will clear the bacterial growth away so that the acid can get to the beer stone which will be the bottom layer. We do circulation maintenance so the other thing we do is switch the direction of flow between cycles. So, between the caustic and acid we switch the faucet exhaust line and the faucet in lines. Hope that helps -Cheers and Cheers!

[@bilavefur]

What about using Citric Acid to remove beerstone? Is that compatible with a mix of phosphoric acid and nitric acid? Will it remove beerstone effectively?

[@BattleFish22]

Thanks. Good video.

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Thanks Scott! We are very glad you enjoyed and hopefully found some use from the video. -Cheers!

[@CorsaF430]

Thanks for the new edits. If cleaning 16 lines, 8 at a time, should new a new caustic solution be used or can it be recycled from the previous 8 lines? Is it ok to disassemble couplers and soak in caustic like the faucets?

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Our favorite part of the video now is the borderline ridiculous voice over editing:) Take your work seriously but don't take yourself to seriously is one of Drew's mottos. Thanks for pointing out that Math Error!! DOH!!!!!! When we are doing a maintenance like that we will reuse the caustic from circulation to the next as long as the system is in good condition and the fluid looks in good shape. We always remember to add more caustic though to account for the new volume of water in the second set of lines. Yes, couplers can be disassembled and soaked in the caustic as well. If they are chrome plated brass they will darken and it will speed up the erosion of the chrome but chrome plated bass cost most people more than they are worth in foam creation anyway. However, when disassembling, the scrubbing you will do is more than the caustic will do so you can also use soapy water or our favorite solution is Star San because it sanitizes and is food safe. Hope that helps and good luck! Cheers and Cheers!

[@CorsaF430]

Thanks. What about soaking couplers in caustic for a deep thorough clean?

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Ultimately it is the same materials as the faucets. We soak couplers we are refurbishing for some other use. Using caustic is fine, our point was more that you don't need to to get them cleaned and sanitized.

[@CorsaF430]

Leaders Beverage ok great thanks. I'm sorry I missed the 2nd half of your response to my first question as I didn't click "read more". Thanks again! Great info!

[@Stephen-mf9by]

What are your thoughts around using silicone lines and circulating boiling water thru them? Looking for an alternative for home-brew.

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

Silicone was used many decades ago because draft quality wasn't a thing. The acidity of the beer will leach the silicone flavor/aroma. It is highly recommended to use polyvinyl for your beer line jumpers. This is easily purchased through any number of online beer suppliers. As to boiling water, that is weakly a sanitizer but not a cleaner. You need a caustic agent to clean away bacterial build up, boiling water will only help remove loose layers of top grime. Plus, hot water will loosen lines allowing them to slip out of clamps. Probably not the answer you hoped for, though, we do hope this helps. Cheers

[@user-cq5lf8mb7c]

Thanks I am from California

[@doctoredable]

Changing the jumper every 3 months is a good idea. It only costs less than 20 bucks. No big deal. Using Ph paper can be very misleading if the water where you live has an acidic or basic inherent Ph. Using a reference of 7 only works if the water is neutral.

[@lmen1990]

We clean out lines with caustic every single time we kick a keg and tap up a new one. It can be tiresome but it makes sure every line is clean.

[@LeadersBeverageConsulting]

+lmen1990 That is great! The most important test is the taste test and knowing the pint before cleaning tastes just as good as the pint after cleaning. If the beer tastes perfect then your doing good! Cheers!

[@scottcharlesjohnson]

Please write a book,

[@cleaningprocesseswithjerry7274]

Would you be interested in joining me on a podcast?

[@tomkehl9632]

Can not hear you very well :( all my Vol's are set highest !

[@RichWitGame]

Only the first 5 sec of the video will play

[@davidreyes2668]

At 54 seconds I’m not even in college and I’ve been a oh 😂 I’m 9th grade