Cleaning your beer lines might just be the single most important thing to do when running your pub, bar or restaurant. Better yet, cleaning them properly is absolutely essential. If your beer tastes bad, it's highly unlikely your customer will come back and even worse, may pass this on to other potential customers that now could steer clear.
You might be new to this, or you might just need to double-check you're doing it right, but either way, check out some tips below on cleaning your beer lines and assume this is your first time:
Tip #1 - Count the number of pints you throw away per beer tap
The very first time you clean your lines, and connect the cleaning up, count how many pints of beer come through the tap before the water draws through. It's always important to know the value of your waste when running a pub. Once you know how many pints of beer you throw away per line, you can look at other methods to try and re-coup those loses.
Tip #2 - Pour water through the tap first
Sometimes, accounts add cleaning fluid and water straight into the cleaning bottle and draw cleaning detergent straight through the lines. You should first only add water, pull this through to the tap and then add your cleaning fluid. Oh yea, once you add your cleaning fluid, remember that for every 10litres of water, you'll ned 100ml of cleaning fluid.
Tip #3 - You Must Do 3x cleaning cycles
Many a time I ask someone at a pub how they clean their lines and the one part that always surprises me is, they only do 1 cleaning cycle, ultimately damaging their reputation and quality of beer. ALWAYS do 3 cleaning cycles, when I say this, I mean, once you pour your cleaning fluid out of the tap, shut the tap for a minimum of 10 minutes, then pour off another pint of cleaning fluid and then line the fluid sit in the line for another 10 minutes (remember minimum 10 mins). This is done 3 times, so at the minimum, cleaning fluid will be sat in your lines for 30 minutes.
Tip #4 - Don't swap your cleaning detergent too frequently
I know it's nice to experiment and find the best detergents, but consistency is key with specs and beer tastes. Find one you like and keep to the same brand.
Tip #5 - Pour through at least 5 pints of water
After your third and final cleaning cycle, you will want to run fresh water through your lines before re-connecting your beer. Pour at least 5 pints of clean water through the lines, ensuring all residual of cleaning fluid has been removed from the lines
Oh, one more thing...
A lot of newbies to cleaning lines should use purple-coloured cleaning detergent so they can be certain when the fluid is in and fully removed from the lines or not... we recommend Prosan Purple Cleaning Fluid, you check it out on our shop page.