Skipped line cleanings cost you slowly. Some show up in the glass, some on the invoice, and some on your license.
The Beer Tastes Worse
Bacteria grow on the inside of dirty lines. The Brewers Association Draught Beer Quality Manual names Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Pectinatus, and Acetobacter as the common ones. They bring sour, buttery, and vinegar flavors into the beer.
The Brewers Association notes these bugs are not a health risk to customers. A customer who gets a sour lager blames your bar. Then they order something else, or go somewhere else. Our guide to off-tastes in draft beer explains what each flavor means.
You Pour More Foam
Buildup inside the line roughs up the tubing wall. CO₂ comes out of the beer at those rough spots, and you get foam. Foam is beer you paid for and can't sell.
A rough example: say each tap wastes 5 extra ounces per keg. You go through 2 kegs per tap each month. That's 10 ounces per tap. On 10 taps, it's 100 ounces a month, about six pints down the drain. A line that foams badly wastes far more than that. See why draft beer gets foamy for other causes.
Your Equipment Wears Out Faster
Skip the quarterly acid cleaning and beer stone builds up. It's a hard mineral crust. Bacteria hide in it, and it makes every cleaning less effective. Faucets gum up and seals wear out sooner.
After enough neglect, cleaning won't bring a line back. You replace tubing, and maybe faucets. That costs more than the cleanings you skipped. More on that in when to replace draft beer lines.
Your License Is Exposed
Pennsylvania requires cleaning every 14 days under 40 Pa. Code § 5.51. If a Liquor Control Enforcement officer finds dirty equipment, or you can't show cleaning certificates, you can get a citation. Our post on Pennsylvania's line cleaning law covers the rules.
How to Catch Up
- Get a full cleaning done now: caustic through the lines, faucets and couplers taken apart and scrubbed.
- If there's been no acid cleaning in the last three months, add one.
- Check faucets, couplers, and seals. Replace anything worn or pitted.
- Set a 14-day schedule and keep a certificate from every visit.
Not sure when your lines were last cleaned? Call (267) 282-1002. We'll clean them, check the parts, and start your record.