Sterilising Barrel Caps

Chris

Hi Guys,

I've recently bought a second barrel (King Keg) and was scanning the instructions; I notice they say you shouldn't get the valve wet. I don't recall seeing this instruction with my current "standard" pressure barrel. In this case I have previously immersed the cap when sterilising, and also used it to close up the barrel when swirling sterilising and rinsing water around in it. What do the assembled company do? Has anyone had any problems due to water in the valve? Any thoughts on how the cap and barrel should be efficiently sterilised and rinsed if you can't get the cap wet?

All the best,

Chris

HBO_Staff

Hi Chris, that's a good question, the instructions do say not to get the valve wet, but we must admit we prefer to make sure that it is clean, so tend to rinse in hot water. We will put this to the suppliers of the valves and see what the official answer is, and hopefully the reason too, and post the results here asap

HBO_Staff

As promised here is the reply from the suppliers which seems common sense, and is what we do with ours, just rinse them in hot water;

 

First and foremost sterilisation is of paramount
importance to the home brewer.A high % of beermaking problems can be traced
to a lapse in cleaning and sterilisation.

We would recomend that the barrel shell itself is
sterilised using a propriatory branded sterilser ensuring that ALL the
sterilising fluid is thoroughly rinsed away with cold water berfore use. The cap
presents a problem. If you want to sterilise the cap by soaking in
sterilising fluid, we would suggest that the metal valve is removed
beforehand.so that it does not come into prolonged contact with the
steriliser fluid. However, keep removing the valve might lead to other
problems.

 

In practise we believe that rinsing the cap/valve with hot
water will suffice. There is no need for prolonged soaking in sterilising fluid.

 

When 'swirling' the barrel with sterilising fluid inside
and the cap on there should not be a problem. There is minimal
contact between the valve and fluid. Just rinse with cold
water.

Chris

Hi,

This does indeed seem to be common sense. I'll follow these suggestions.

Thanks both to yourselves and to the suppliers for this very rapid response. Timely, as my second brew (St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale) is in primary fermentation. I
should be in a position to transfer it to the barrel at the weekend.

All the best,

Chris