40°C to 65°C (additional heaters can be added to raise further the temperature if required). The detergent tank is a closed loop system. Automatic Holchem detergent dosing can be added, however the tank is normally filled, dosed and used for a batch of kegs. When the level is automatically topped up the control screen will prompt the operator to top up the detergent. After a pre-set batch run the screen will prompt the operator to dump and re-fill the detergent tank. Automated detergent strength monitoring is possible but is an optional extra. For those very traditional brewers who do not condone the use of chemicals in beer packaging a Microdat washer can have its software adapted to the same processing as used by, for example, Timothy Taylor’s who never use chemicals in cask cleaning. Microdat would however always recommend detergent washing in kegs.
Final Rinse Microdat would always recommend a hot final rinse at 80°C minimum however; options such as a cold rinse or a cold
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rinse with a chemical sanitiser can be accommodated, via recipe selections on the control screen. If the keg is cold rinsed it will cool the keg down prior to steam sterilisation, this will extend the steaming time and steam consumed. It will reduce the recovered warm to hot prewash to a cold pre-wash which will in turn increase the amount of energy used in the detergent wash system. Microdat always strongly recommends a hot final rinse on kegs and casks.
Steam Steam at 3 bar pressure is injected into the keg on the initial steam injection, this preheats the keg. The condensate is removed and collected to the recovery tank. Steam is then reinjected and held at pressure for a set time to sterilise the keg and the integral spear and valve assembly.
Carbon Dioxide On a keg washing only machine the final process on the keg is to purge the keg of steam with carbon dioxide which cools
the keg and ensures that the environment for the beer is oxygen free. Finally the keg is then pressurised with carbon dioxide to provide the counter pressure gas for filling control via a simple coupler with a counter pressure release filling system. On Microdat’s low cost keg filler like the KF12 or KF28 the internal carbon dioxide pressure is checked prior to filling to ensure that no leakage has occurred. Leaking kegs produce flat beer and lost customers! The KW23 keg washer, described above, is a medium performance craft keg washer with the latest twist lock washing head, it accommodates similar washing flow rates and pressures associated with the flagship KWF35 and therefore has similar production rates, with the exception that the KWF35 completes its processing on the wash head at the steam hold stage. On the KWF35 set to washer-filler mode, the keg is directly transferred from wash head to fill head.