Line Cleaning

As industry leaders, we wanted to equip you with basic guidelines when it comes to cleaning your draft lines. That’s why we have put together our recommendations on how to properly clean your lines. The cost of cleaning lines is negligible relative to the cost of losing customers when your beer tastes stale.

Before we get started you’ll also want to check out our webinar, How To Keep Your Draft System Healthy, to learn more about the essential components of draft systems, proper maintenance and cleaning, and how to troubleshoot common issues.

Along with industry standards, we recommend that you clean your draft lines every 14 days. This includes your lines, FOBs, couplers & most importantly your faucets. Failure to properly clean your lines will result in the build up of bacteria, yeast, mold and beer stone, which will degrade the quality of the draft beer you serve.

General Recommendations For Your self-pour System Static Line Cleaning:

Only use chemicals recommended by The Brewer’s Associations guidelines.
Reference your draft line installer and consider hiring a professional line cleaner.
You will need to use 1 or more cleaning cards to open the valves. You will need 1 cleaning card for each screen that you are cleaning at the same time. If you don’t have enough cleaning cards, you can go in the configuration setting on your PourMyBeer server and set up “open pour” setting.
The flowmeters need to be cleaned biweekly as a part of your beverage line cleaning.
The FOBs also need to be cleaned as a part of your biweekly cleaning (run the cleaning chemicals through them) but at least twice per year, they need to be physically removed and hand cleaned according to Brewer’s Associations guidelines.
For more information reference The Brewers Association guidelines.

Frequently asked Questions

Can recirculating line cleaning pumps impact the system?

No, but it is more complicated to execute because you would have to have multiple cleaning cards with no limit to open multiple valves at the same time.

What are your recommendations for cleaning flowmeters?

The flowmeters are cleaned as a part of your biweekly cleaning process since they are a part of your beverage line.

Are there any differences in standard cleaning methods that need to be altered for cleaning a PourMyBeer system?

Are there any differences in standard cleaning methods that need to be altered for cleaning a PourMyBeer system? – Using the recirculation pump (also referred to as a circulatory cleaning) that is commonly used for cleaning traditional bar setup is not ideal because you would have to have all of the valves you are cleaning (usually 6 – 10 at the same time) opened at the same time. Static line cleaning is easier to execute with self-pour setup.

Using the recirculation pump (also referred to as a circulatory cleaning) that is commonly used for cleaning a traditional bar setup is not ideal because you would have to have all of the valves you are cleaning (usually 6 – 10 at the same time) opened at the same time. Static line cleaning is easier to execute with a self-pour setup.

How to Create a Cleaning Card

Line cleaning is an essential part of keeping your beer system crisp and the beer tasting clean. Failure to clean on a regular basis (at least every 2 weeks) will result in an off-tasting beverage and the potential of losing repeat sales. Not only this but the flow meter and valve component could become gummed up and stuck.

To clean you will follow the directions of your draft beer line installer. They will use a special “cleaning card” when onsite to clean lines. This card opens valves but does not charge money for the account. To create a cleaning card use the admin card and follow these steps or watch the video below:

Select “Create Cleaning Card”
Enter the name of the cleaning card. We recommend using the name of your beer line cleaning company.
Place the card on the card loader at the prompt.
After a couple of seconds, the cleaning info will be written and the card will be ready to use.

NOTE: Make sure this card stays with the staff or with the cleaning company. Cleaning reports can be accessed via the web portal.

Above is a video from our System Tutorial Series, where Jason, Technical Support Lead at PourMyBeer, explains how to create a cleaning card.

As always, if you have any questions or are interested in learning more, don’t hesitate to contact us at cheers@pourmybeer.com or call us at 312-416-9989!