Automated keg washing and filling system

01

Set the wash and sterilisation sequence

KegLand describes the cycle of its PLC-controlled commercial washer-filler: couple to the keg; empty residual beer; water rinse; blow water out with air or CO2 (which it says protects the caustic tank, so caustic can be recirculated longer); caustic wash; hot water rinse; acid sanitiser such as phosphoric; water rinse; optional steam sterilisation; optional further rinse; CO2 purge; and CO2 pressurisation ready for filling. Each step can be omitted or adjusted from the touch screen. [1]

GKN Sankey's patent describes washing at two stations, with steaming to discharge detergent and water and temperature probes to check that fluids reached an effective temperature; the keg is then filled with steam and CO2, for example steam at 140 °C and CO2 at 50 psi, and sealed. Sterilisation can continue at a waiting station, or the keg can be water-sprayed to cool it before filling; because it holds CO2, cooling does not form a vacuum. [2]

Editorial calculation: 50 psi is about 3.4 bar. Ask the supplier for the time, temperature and concentration of each step and how the controller confirms each one before filling. [2]

A larger in-line system shows how the same steps are split across stations. One maker's automatic keg washing and filling line (Shandong Baiguan) is rated at 100–120 kegs per hour for 20 L kegs, with twelve units in sequence: keg in-feed conveyor; pre-washer (drain, mixed-water clean, discharge, alkali fill); a soaking conveyor whose length sets the soak time; an external washer with two servo-driven brushes and water sprays for 360° cleaning; a second soaking conveyor; an internal washer (alkali recovery and clean, hot-water flush, acid clean, hot-water cleans and recovery, then steam sterilisation); a conveyor under steam pressure; the filler; an out-feed conveyor; a weighing and reject unit; a keg turner; and a final out-feed conveyor. [3]

Give the supplier the keg types and sizes, spear and coupler types (for example A or D), beers and gas, target rate in kegs per hour, wash chemicals and concentrations, steam availability, CO2 and air supply, dissolved oxygen target, fill weight or volume control, labelling and traceability, and conveyors and handling.

02

Fill against counter-pressure and keep oxygen out

KegLand's fill sequence pressurises the keg with CO2 for counter-pressure, blows CO2 through the spear to clear residual drips, fills, stops, clears the filling head with CO2 and unloads. It states that at 30–40 kegs per hour the machine can reach dissolved oxygen of 50 ppb or less, lower with longer purging, more CO2 and slower cycling, and notes that with steam the CO2 purge may be omitted only if dissolved oxygen tests confirm it. [1]

Its listed specifications are 3 kW power, 30–40 kegs per hour, keg sizes of 5–60 L, air at 5–6 bar, beer supply at 1.5–2.5 bar and CO2 at 2–3 bar, with A-type and D-type coupling heads. [1] In Sankey's method, beer filled at the racking station displaces the gas in the keg through a pressure relief valve. [2]

Editorial calculation: 30–40 kegs per hour is one keg every 90–120 s; a brewery packaging 200 kegs a day at 35 kegs per hour needs about 5.7 hours of running, before cleaning and changeovers. [1]

The same line's filler sequence is: sterilise the spear port, open the spear, purge with CO2, pressurise with CO2, fill beer, close the spear and wash the spear port, after which each keg is weighed and off-weight kegs are rejected. [3]

Editorial calculation: 100–120 kegs per hour is one keg every 30–36 s, about three times the rate of a 30–40 keg-per-hour two-head machine; 200 kegs a day at 110 kegs per hour needs about 1.8 hours of running. [3] [1]

GEA Till's US patent 5,649,575 (Keg filling process and apparatus, priority 1994) addresses the filling head rather than the keg. It gives −2 to +4 °C as the range at which beer is filled and 6–8 °C for non-alcoholic drinks, so the feed line and the metal of the filling head are chilled by conduction; rinsing with water or pulsing steam to clear air does not kill bacteria on those cold surfaces, and germs can be washed from the head into a keg that has already been sterilised. Its process rinses the head (for example for two seconds), then sterilises the head and the outside of the keg fitting with hot steam before filling, with a temperature sensor placed at the region of the head expected to stay coolest. The patent states that the metal must reach at least 63 °C and hold it for about fifteen minutes, with the required time falling as temperature rises, so that at 72 °C a thirty-second cycle is adequate; the controller monitors both temperature and time. [4]

Editorial note: the KegLand and GKN Sankey sequences above sterilise the keg; this patent adds a check on the filling head itself. Ask the supplier whether the head is steamed between kegs, where its temperature is measured, and what minimum metal temperature and hold time the controller enforces. [4] [1] [2]

03

Brewery equipment makers that also build keg fillers

Listings include beer kegging machines and semi-automatic and automatic filling lines alongside brewhouses and fermenters.

04

Coupler to check-weigher: parts of a keg washer-filler

05

Keg line quote data, read against two published machines

The dissolved-oxygen row is the one to prove: KegLand's 50 ppb figure is its own claim at 30–40 kegs per hour, so ask for DO test results at your rate and keg size. [1]

06

Send the keg, process and utility data together

Paste it into your enquiry below or into an email to a maker, then replace every bracket.

Kegs: [types; sizes; couplers]
Wash: [steps; chemicals; temperatures; steam]
Fill: [counter-pressure; DO target; fill control]
Rate: [kegs per hour; daily volume]
Utilities: [CO2; air; steam; power]
Records: [recipes; traceability]

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