R2 Part Two
How to make this thing work
Last week we explained how to make an R2 of your very own. I would also like to add if you don’t feel like building one, Forgeworks has made a larger version available for sale. Also my old friend Dean Rouleau, who can be seen brewing beside me on the original Frankenbrew video from 1995, can make an R2 like the one I show here.
The first thing I would like to say is that we clean kegs for internal use only. The keg is cleaned using our R2, then we fill the keg and it stays in our cooler, so we never let the kegs out of our sight. When I explain the steps we use, there is no sanitizing step. I have done this for the past 13 years and have experience zero infection problems. I was trained at the Siebel Institute on Microbiology in brewing, so I know what infection looks, tastes and smells like. That said, I will explain how to sanitize as well using your very own R2
After you have made your sweet little R2, you also need a keg filler that will attach to the unit. You probably already have such a thing, but if not they are easy to make.
First take an Sankey valve and removed the back flow preventers from the fluid and gas sides. Next attach a sanitary ball valve onto both of these beer nut threads. From there on the product side, attach a 4 ft. hose - braided is best - with a tri-clamp to hose barb thread on the end. On the gas side of the Sankey valve, clamp a larger 3/4 inch diameter braided hose about two feet long. When done it should look like this.
The tri-clamp gets hooked up to the manifold on your R2. Here is my explanation from the book The Brewery Operations Manual. Note, the keg, once connected to the Sankey set up, is turned upside down on top of the R2 unit.
1. Attach pump outlet to middle TC
2. Attach keg filler to Product TC
3. Add mixture hot water and Acid #6 to R2
4. Run keg filler drain hose to floor sink
5. Open keg filler gas outlet to drain keg
6. Open keg filler product inlet
7. Turn on hot water to rinse keg. Rinse twice
8. Replace keg filler outlet to drain back into R2
9. Turn pump on. Set valve at 15psi by adjusting output of pump and run for 2 minutes
10. Allow Acid to drain back into R2. Push with burst of CO2 at the end of the cycle
11. Run keg filler drain hose to floor sink
12. Turn on hot water to rinse keg
13. While final rinse, turn CO2 on after rinse to push water out. When all water is rinsed from keg, turn off drain hose valve and CO2. Turn keg upside down to drain water out of the spear, then place back on R2, turn back on CO2 and allow CO2 pressure to build to 10# psi.
14. Turn all filler valves off and remove keg.
If you wanted to include a sanitation loop as well, I would first clean and rinse all the kegs. Then empty the acid solution from R2, and replace with a suitable sanitizer. Next loop the sanitizer in the keg, drain and follow step 13.
This may sound complicated, but really, it’s not. The first thing our students do in our immersion course is clean kegs to see how it works. I also mentioned in last weeks news letter we have a video showing how it works here. Also the version (same steps) in our sink version of cleaning kegs seen here.
After reading this through, I think it’s time to make another video showing these steps, as they seem a wee bit confusing. Once you have done a few, it’s really quite easy.
