Beer line cleaner is a chemical product that is designed to use in cleaning out the lines of a draft beer system. You can get different types of these products. Some are more caustic and some are more environmentally friendly. To use beer line cleaner takes a little know-how.

The beer line cleaner product is usually sold as a concentrate. That means you will begin beer line cleaning by diluting it with water. You should always follow any safety warnings and instructions given with the product. Mix the product with water in a bucket, and you are ready to begin.

You have to take your beer tower apart to start this part of the process. You disconnect the tap from the barrel. Disconnect it from the tubing as well. Take off the beer faucet. The beer faucet should be broken down into its smaller parts. Put it to soak in the bucket along with the tap.

You should have a special attachment designed specifically to clean the faucet. Connect it firmly between the beer tower and the line. You need a pump to get the beer line cleaner solution flowing through the line. The flow should keep up for several minutes while the lines come clean.

You have to clean out the tap by hand. The beer faucet parts should be scrubbed with a brush until they are completely free of debris and residue. The next step is important, and seems almost impossible. You pump a small sponge through the line to clean it. To do the best job, you should do this procedure twice.

That takes care of the cleaning part. The beer line cleaner has done its job and the beer line and parts of the faucet are all spotless and ready to rinse. The rinsing is an important part, though. It should be done with care or you could get funny tastes in your beer. If you are using one of the more caustic cleaners, you could even have harmful ingredients in the beer.

Therefore, be careful to rinse the faucet parts thoroughly before you connect the faucet. Empty your bucket and rinse it completely. Then, fill it with clean water. Again, you use the pump, only this time you connect its hose to the beer line.

Pump the water from the bucket through the beer line until the line is rinsed well. When sparkling water emerges from the line, you have completed the job. All that is left to do is to re-tap the barrel and work the faucet until beer is coming out rather than water.

The whole process can be done in an hour or so. It is easy to do once you get the hang of it. Different beer line cleaning kits have instructions that might vary from this simple procedure.

Yet, the basic process is the same: Clean the parts, pump cleaner through the line, and pump clean water through the line. All you have to do is to follow instructions and use a little elbow grease. You can have fresh-tasting beer in no time at all.