Deciding On a Cleaning Schedule for Your Draft Line
Draft beer is known for its distinctive taste and quality. A dirty line can change how your customers experience your beer and may discourage them from returning. Many bars and restaurants that have dirty beer lines may notice a negative impact on their bottom line. Cleaning your lines prevents the mudding of your draft beers’ flavors and protects your customers from potential contamination.
Northwest Draft Technicians helps bars, homebrewers, and restaurants throughout Portland, Oregon, serve high-quality, superior-tasting, and carbonated beverages. Here, our team discusses how to choose a draft beer line cleaning schedule.
How to Decide Your Draft Beer Line Cleaning Schedule
When figuring out your beer cleaning schedule, there are a few factors you need to keep in mind.
Industry Guidelines
The Brewers Association outlines specific protocols for cleaning beer lines. Their recommendations include using an alkaline detergent cleaner every two weeks. They also advise recirculating this cleanser through your beer lines for 15 minutes or longer at a speed of two gallons per minute. At that speed, there is enough pressure to clean out all the buildup and contaminants in your lines.
Busyness of Your Establishment
The more draft beers you pour, the faster your lines get dirty. If you own a busy bar or popular eatery, you may notice that you need to clean your lines more often. If you have a kegerator at home or pour one to two beers a day, you may be able to stretch out your line cleanings for longer than two weeks.
Beer Type
The type of beer you serve also has a direct impact on how often you need to clean your lines. Hoppy beers leave more residue in their lines, resulting in more frequent cleaning. Likewise, dark beers may leave more sediment behind than lighter beers. These lines may also need to be cleaned more often.
Beer Line Length
The length of the beer lines also impacts the cleaning schedule. Longer lines should be cleaned more often due to increased surface area for beer to attach to. Glycol systems are designed for long-draw applications and have longer lines, so they require bi-weekly cleaning to maintain optimal performance. Meanwhile, direct draw systems with short lines require less frequent cleaning.
Temperature
The temperature of your business can affect the cleaning schedule of your beer lines. Businesses in warmer environments often need to clean their beer lines more often since higher temperatures promote faster bacteria growth. When bacteria form more quickly in the lines, they need to be cleaned more frequently to remove them.
Professional Draft Beer Line Cleaners in Portland
At Northwest Draft Technicians, we understand keeping your draft lines clean can be time-consuming. As small business owners, we also know how hard it can be to multi-task and juggle all your responsibilities. When you choose us, we will handle the cleaning schedules for you, so you can stress less.
Bi-Weekly
Our bi-weekly cleanings include flushing lines with a caustic, alkaline cleaning solution. Our team uses an electric cleaning pump that thoroughly cleans your lines. We also disassemble and hand-clean your faucets and sinks.
Quarterly
The industry recommends cleaning your draft lines with an acid solution every three months. This solution removes any stubborn buildup stuck in the deep crevices. Not only will we handle all the scheduling of this quarterly service, but we will also clean your sinks and faucets while cleaning your lines.Bi-Annually
“Foam on Beer” (FOBs) are devices used that help prevent beer waste in draft systems, especially long draw or remote systems. We offer removal and cleaning of FOBs in the walk-in cooler bi-annually to keep them working optimally. This service also helps maintain the beer quality and remove the buildup of yeast, bacteria, and other beer residue.Annually
We want your draft system to work exactly as it should be. Our team conducts maintenance and inspections annually. This yearly service allows us to address any potential problems before they harm your business, draft system, or profit. We handle everything, including:- Draft performance tests
- Repairs
- Replacements
- Cleanings
- Line inspections
Schedule Draft Beer Line Cleaning Service in Portland, OR
Clean and maintained draft beer lines allow you to serve carbonated, good-tasting beer. Dirty lines can alter the taste of your beer in a negative way which can cause your sales to decrease. At Northwest Draft Technicians, we help bars and restaurants in the Portland area with all their draft beer line cleaning needs. We also offer an on-call service in case of an emergency at no cost to you. To learn more about our cleaning services, contact us today.
