This tap line cleaner turns water into varying colors to show the level of cleanliness

The craft beer business is creative, which has radically changed traditional beer styles and ingredients for inventive, small-batch, catch-your-attention flavors. With such radical new ingredients, cleaning beer lines like you did before may not give you the best clean-in-place results. The job now requires its own innovation, like this premium caustic Sodium Hydroxide cleaner with a color indicator feature that verifies when a surface is clean. Other cleaners may have a color built into them, but their color is only for safety, so that you can distinguish it from the color of water.

Surprisingly, there are no dyes in TM Desana Max IC. The Color-Change Technology changes from purple to blue, green, or yellow due to a chemical reaction with organics in your equipment. It shows when the surfaces of beer lines are clean or not clean and the level of cleaning by color. “Proof of Clean” is achieved when the cleaner stays purple. Here are two methods of cleaning draft systems and beer lines using TM Desana Max IC.

Cleaning canister or soak method

Introduce the TM Desana Max IC to the system by connecting the system to a keg or a cleaning canister filled with the solution. After 10 to 15 minutes of soak time, if the chemical has changed from purple to blue, green or yellow, then it has picked up organic contamination in the system. Replace it with a fresh solution inside the cleaning canister and repeat the process. TM Desana Max IC will show you when the beer line is clean by remaining purple.

Recirculation method

Add TM Desana Max IC solution to the CIP system and recirculate it for 10 to 15 minutes or more. If the chemical has changed from purple to blue, green or yellow, then it has picked up organic contamination in the system. Replace it with a fresh solution and repeat the process. Again, TM Desana Max IC will show you when the system is clean by remaining purple.

Now your brewery or on-premise bar can do its own cleanings and evaluate its cleaning schedule frequency and effectiveness by using TM Desana Max IC Color Change Technology. Remember that all chemicals need to be rinsed out with water for safety before adding beer into the beer lines or draught system.

Tap rinsing ball

The goal at AFCO|ZEP is to help breweries and beer distributors sell more draft beer. The company has also designed an easy-to-use tap rinsing ball. Simply fill it with water and use it to rinse your faucet nightly. This helps improve the hygiene at the very front end of your draft system. AFCO|ZEP produces traditional CIP cleaners for brewing systems and draft systems, and additional innovative products that verify cleanings with Color-Change Technology built into the chemistry. Visit zepbrew.com to learn more.

Karl Braun is a food and beverage safety specialist at AFCO|ZEP.