Signs Your Brewery Keg Washer Needs Replacement

A small brewery getting its first automatic keg washer can make a massive difference in production schedules and sanitation quality. These washers are essential pieces of equipment for keeping your operation running smoothly, but they aren’t infallible and won’t last forever. Small malfunctions inside a keg washer’s mechanisms can make it unsuitable for use without you even realizing it. That’s why you need to keep a lookout for these signs that your brewery keg washer needs a replacement. This way, you can catch it as soon as possible.

One Cycle Isn’t Enough

Automatic keg washers should fully clean and sanitize kegs in one cycle. One of the clearest signs you need to replace your brewery’s keg washer is when one cleaning cycle just isn’t getting the kegs entirely clean anymore. No matter how many times you run it through the keg washer, you can’t be sure that you have a fully clean keg unless it functions as it should. For sanitation and health protection reasons, you can’t trust a keg washer that won’t do the job in one go. So make sure you get a replacement as soon as possible.

Your Beer Starts Tasting Worse

Maybe your latest batch of beer just isn’t tasting the way it should when it comes out of the kegs, and you can’t figure out why. If you haven’t changed the brewing process in any way, there must be an outside source for your beer starting to taste off. This is a sign that you should inspect your keg washer a little closer. The problem is easier to spot if you try your beer straight from the fermentation tank, and it tastes fine, but it tastes worse once you’ve transferred it into a keg and dispensed it from there.

Too Much or Too Little Pressure

The process of pressurizing the keg after a full cleaning and sanitation cycle is all part of what keg washers do. However, a malfunctioning keg washer may not pressurize your keg correctly. In the best-case scenario, this will make it more difficult to fill and dispense beer from it in the future. In the worst-case scenario, pressure can build up much higher than it should, creating a hazard for anyone around the keg. Make sure to carefully measure the pressurized environments of your kegs and replace a keg washer that isn’t pressurizing them correctly anymore.

If you find one of these issues and realize it’s time for a new automatic keg washer, you should contact Craftmaster Stainless. We make it easy to get your replacement and craft our keg washers for longevity. They won’t let you down even after plenty of keg washing cycles.