Pizza Today - July 2017 - 22

with KEITH COFFMAN

on tap

KEEPING IT CLEAN

Dirty draft lines can cause bad experiences for your customers

ave you ever ordered a pint
of your favorite beer, took
a huge drink and WHAM
-- it didn't taste anything like you were
expecting? The problem isn't you or
your taste buds. The correct beer was
poured. The date on the keg shows that
the beer was kegged within the past
three weeks, so it's not the beer. The
problem is that the restaurant doesn't
clean their draft lines regularly.
Dirty draft lines plague establishments that sell beer, breweries and the
craft beer market as a whole. Dirty
lines can cause your customers to have
a bad experience at your restaurant or
bar that could result in lost business.
Beer can and will break down inside
draft lines and leave minerals, yeast
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residue, protein and hop resins, along
with bacteria, molds and other nasty
stuff. Most draft line installers and
cleaning companies recommend cleaning your draft lines every two to four
weeks and always when changing kegs
from one beer to another.
Cleaning your draft lines is easy and
it's one of the best ways to ensure that
you are giving your customers the beers
exactly how the brewer intended. There
are companies and individuals that
you can hire that specialize in cleaning
draft lines and draft system maintenance. Some distributors will come in
and clean your lines as well. AnheuserBusch requires their distributors to
clean their lines every two weeks and
have them keep a cleaning log at each

location where their beers are sold.
You can also clean your lines yourself, and you will only need a few basic
items to start cleaning your lines like a
professional. The items that you'll need
are a beer cleaning tank, beer line cleaning chemicals, rubber gloves and safety
glasses. Beer cleaning tanks are available in multiple sizes from 32-ounce
bottles to 1/6-barrel kegs. Most tanks
will utilize the gas that you use to push
beer through your lines, but you can also
get tanks with manual or electric pump
options. If you have European kegs on
draft, you'll want to have a tank that will
accept European couplers (or at least
have an extra Sankey "D" Coupler in
your inventory that you can replace your
European couplers with while cleaning
your lines). I have a five-liter tank that
only accepts Sankey "D" Couplers at one
of my restaurants and a 1/6-barrel cleaning tank that has four different style
necks so that I don't ever have to change
out couplers.
Once you have your cleaning tank,
put on your gloves and glasses. There are
several manufacturers of beer line cleaners, so be sure to follow their instructions on how much beer line cleaner to
mix with water. Hook your coupler up
to your cleaning tank with your cleaner/
water solution and then simply run
two to five liters of cleaner/water out
through your draft faucet. After letting
the cleaner solution set in the line for
a couple of minutes, next you'll need to
flush your line with two to five liters of
clean water. Dispose of your used line
cleaner and water properly after use,
brush your faucets and you're finished.
Now you're ready to pour your customers a great draft beer through your
properly cleaned lines. Cheers! ■
KEITH COFFMAN is the owner and operator
of Lost River Pizza Company.

By JOSH KEOWN

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - July 2017

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