Weekly Beer Line Cleaning May Not Always Be Sufficient

Beer line cleaning is something that is a necessity for every business that serves cask or keg beer, and in most cases it is deemed that it should be carried out once a week.

However, there is one company that claims that it can clean your beer lines every four weeks and they will still be clean when they return for the next clean four weeks later. However, there is a proviso, and that is that this can occur "as long as the bar staff carry out proper hygiene and follow the strict instructions" that the company gives. Quite.

However, the company stated that starting with a perfectly clean system was the secret to success. Carrying out a weekly clean and flush if the system was not perfectly clean in the first place would not work. It was described as being like cleaning a dirty kitchen counter with a dirty cloth: it may look clean but still not be hygienic. 

 
One of the company's assessments of a pub that was carrying out weekly beer line cleaning showed that its' beer lines were not totally hygienic even so. It had a heavy build-up of biofilm at the taps despite the weekly cleaning, and sockets, couplers, and stained outer cases were also found. No doubt the pub manager felt that he was doing everything the right way, but his beer line cleaning still failed to meet the standards of hygiene required.

It seems that many pubs, bars, and clubs don't even carry out the cleaning of small parts properly. It is quite common to find the beer nozzles soaking in a pint glass of water, but this is about the same as leaving dishes soaking in a sink overnight. They wouldn't have somehow miraculously cleaned themselves by the following morning, so in similar fashion, beer nozzles left to soak in water will not be perfectly hygienic either.

The need is for good staff training, but many companies don't do this because they say that the staff will soon move on in any case. However, if the beer lines are not perfectly cleaned, the customers will soon move on as well.

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