There’s no way around it — beer line cleaning is the most important thing any brewer or beer business operator needs to do to ensure success.

That might seem like an exaggeration, but it’s not: beer line cleaning means better-tasting beer, full stop. Clean beer lines can make or break a business, and with brewers living or dying on their product quality, clean lines become even more essential — and all you need is the right beer line cleaner.

The right beer line cleaner can prevent off-flavors, foam issues, and costly waste, helping you serve perfect pours every time. Keeping lines clean shows a commitment to excellence and protects equipment investment, all of which help businesses build their reputations.

A proper beverage line cleaning can be the difference between a mediocre and a stellar experience: here’s everything you need to know about how beer line cleaning can elevate your business.

What Happens When You Don’t Clean Beer Lines

Dirty beer lines can negatively impact beer quality and equipment longevity. Here’s how the impact of dirty beer lines can show up in the brewery:

1. Off-Flavors  — Yeast and bacteria can build in lines that haven’t been cleaned, giving beer a sour, stale, or otherwise unpleasant flavor. These off-flavors directly result from organic matter that hasn’t been cleaned.
2. Foam Issues — Dirty lines can cause either excessive foam or flat beer. Beer stone (a hard, mineral-like deposit) can block the flow of lines, affecting carbonation. This can lead to waste if a beer is improperly poured.
3. Clogs and Blockages — Over time, buildup in the lines can create clogs, slowing or completely stopping beer flow.
4. Bacterial Growth — We mentioned this above, but it’s worth isolating the impact that bacterial growth can have on beer. Bacteria can cause off flavors but can also lead to potential health risks and spoilage. Craft beers are especially prone to contamination, so cleaning is particularly key in craft breweries.
5. Shortened Equipment Lifespan — Dirty beer lines can cause wear and tear on your dispensing equipment, including faucets, couplers, and kegs. Cleaning helps prevent corrosion and other damage to your lines and taps.

The Tools You Need for Beer Line Cleaning

Luckily, beer line cleaning is simple as long as you have the right equipment:

Detergent: You need the right beer line cleaner to tackle beer stone, yeast, and protein buildup. At Foxx, we recommend using the Vantage Synergy Power User Formula, which uses three cleaners:

• The Vantage Biomass Remover, which removes organic compounds (biomass) like proteins, yeasts, and lipids
• The Vantage Demineralizer, which removes minerals, often referred to as beer stone, like calcium carbonate and magnesium, which form in any product that interacts with water (buildup is especially acute in areas with hard water, which have a higher concentration of minerals)
• The Vantage Accelerator, an enzyme-based cleaner that offers a safer alternative to harsh chemicals

We like this suite of cleaners because they’re safer than traditional acidic cleaners. Time and again, we see that one of the reasons people avoid cleaning is how tough and potentially dangerous some beer line cleaners can be to use.

The three cleaners are designed to be used together and can reduce cleaning time by 50%.

Line Cleaning Cans: A line cleaning can looks almost like a homebrew keg. It gets filled with a beer line cleaner solution (like the one described above) and then pressurized with gas to move the solution through the beer lines. The pressure sanitizes the lines and removes debris. The number of “heads” a can has determines how many lines you can clean at once (we sell single-head cans and four-head line kegs, depending on how much volume you do).

Line Cleaning Pump: A line cleaning pump is a specialized tool used to clean beer lines, faucets, and kegs. It uses pressure to force cleaning solutions (like beer line cleaner) through beer lines to remove buildup like yeast, proteins, and beer stone.

How Often Should You Clean Beer Lines?

How often you should clean depends on your volume. Generally, we recommend every two weeks — more frequently if you’re operating a high-volume brewery or restaurant and less if you operate a low-volume spot.

How Beer Line Cleaning Elevates Your Business

Regular beer line cleaning is essential for maintaining the quality of your beer. There’s nothing more critical to building a beer brand than ensuring what you brew translates to what customers taste, and letting things like calcium buildup or bacteria growth impede flavor are silly ways to jeopardize quality.

Regular line cleaning shows that you care about the quality of your product and allows customers to enjoy a consistent product. Beer line cleaning also maximizes your equipment — a major cost in any brewery or beer business.

There’s also the nuts and bolts of operating a beer business: cleaning lines ensures you pass safety and health regulations and cuts down on waste from poorly-poured or off-tasting beers.In a competitive market, beer line cleaning is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to set your business apart. At Foxx, we have all the tools to make cleaning as easy as possible.