If you own or manage a bar, pub, or restaurant, you know how crucial it is to keep your beer lines clean to ensure great-tasting beer while maintaining a healthy and clean serving environment for your customers. However, with the recent passing of NC Senate Bill 527, ABC Omnibus 2023-24, North Carolina businesses now face an added challenge: beer distributors are no longer permitted to provide complimentary line cleaning services and maintenance after January 1, 2025.

You might find yourself asking, “Can’t I just clean my own beer lines?” The short answer is, technically, yes — and if you are a production brewery with a taproom or a small establishment with a keg box and have draft system mainenance expertise on staff-it may make sense to keep things in-house. However before you grab the caustic and brushes and entrust the job to your staff, let’s explore why this might not be your best option. 

In this blog, we’ll dive into the risks, liabilities, business impact, and even future legislation that may make cleaning beer lines professionally the smarter choice.

The Hidden Risks of DIY Beer Line Cleaning

Let’s face it, cleaning beer lines might seem like an easy task, and you might be tempted to cut corners to save a few bucks. However, doing it yourself can present serious risks that go beyond the “oops, that beer tastes off” moment.

Health Hazards: The first and foremost reason to reconsider cleaning your own beer lines is health and safety. Over time, beer lines can accumulate yeast, mold, and bacteria — all of which thrive in moist environments. If not cleaned properly and regularly, this buildup along with inorganic material can lead to contamination, causing sickness among your customers. Without the convenience of a subscription-level professional cleaning service scheduled, it can be easy for staff or managers to forget or delay the job. If neglected long enough, this could eventually lead to foodborne illness outbreaks. Imagine the damage to your reputation (and your wallet) if a customer gets sick and traces it back to your beer lines. Additionally, improper handling of toxic cleaning chemicals can lead to accidents and burns to your staff.

The Risk of Improper Cleaning: Beer line cleaning requires more than just a quick rinse with water. It involves a specific process using the right chemicals, tools, and pressure. If you or your staff  fail to use the correct products or methods, your lines might end up dirtier than before with residual cleaning agents affecting the taste of your beer — or worse, untrained or distracted staff may fail  to properly rinse and test the product before serving and injested chemicals could result in serious bodily injury or death of a customer.  Cleaning beer lines improperly can also void warranties on your equipment, resulting in costly repairs.

Long-Term Damage: Neglecting proper maintenance or rushing through the cleaning process could result in long-term damage to your tap system, including clogged or corroded lines. This might lead to inconsistent beer flow, over-carbonation, wasted product or even the need to replace expensive components of your system — a cost no one wants to shoulder unexpectedly.

The Impact on Your Business and Staff

Now, let’s talk about how DIY beer line cleaning affects your day-to-day operations and your team.

Loss of Staff Productivity:  When your staff is responsible for cleaning the beer lines, it takes time away from more critical tasks like serving customers, restocking, or managing the bar. Moreover, without proper training, staff may not clean effectively, leading to inconsistent results. Even if the job is completed, it could divert valuable time that could be spent generating revenue. By outsourcing the cleaning to a professional service, you allow your team to focus on their core duties, ensuring a smooth operation. This also eliminates the need for staff to come in during off-hours or for your business to shut off draft lines during peak times, preventing disruptions to service and allowing you to maintain normal business hours without lengthy cleaning interruptions.

Additionally, while your staff may be trained to clean the lines, troubleshooting draft performance issues and making necessary repairs require specialized knowledge, additional training, and access to parts inventory. Imagine your beer lines stop working right before a major event or holiday, like St. Patrick’s Day! With a reliable professional service partner, you can rest easy knowing that an experienced technician will be able to respond quickly, armed with the right tools and parts to get your system up and running smoothly.

Customer Satisfaction & Reputation: One bad pint can sour a customer’s opinion of your business. If your beer is off-tasting or flat due to dirty lines, that’s a direct hit to your reputation. And word spreads fast. Keeping your lines professionally cleaned ensures your beers taste fresh and crisp every time, which keeps customers coming back for more.

Compliance and Liability: If a staff member gets burned by caustic or acid or a customer were to get sick due to poor line maintenance, you could be held legally liable. This risk isn’t worth running, especially when professional beer line cleaning can shoulder the risk and liabillity for you.  Additionally, while cleaning schedules, processes, and compliance are not yet evaluated, increasingly states across the country are quickly evolving to beer lines being a part of health inspections. It could be a smart proactive move to partner with a reputable service early before more legislation hits--let's explore that more in the next section.

What the Future Could  Hold: Legislation & Health Inspections

As the food and beverage industry continues to evolve, so do the regulations surrounding cleanliness and sanitation. In fact, there’s a growing trend nationally toward stricter guidelines for beverage systems. North Carolina now joins over 12 states that have designated retailers as the accountable party for line cleaning. Many of these states also mandate standards for beer line cleanliness as part of regular inspections, with many local and state health codes tightening their focus on bars, restaurants, and breweries. This shift was often preceded by legislation that prohibited distributors from offering complimentary beer line cleaning services and laid the groundwork for more intensive regulations moving forward so it is possible that North Carolina may follow a similar evolution in regulations. Health inspectors are increasingly treating establishments as more than just places to serve drinks — they’re scrutinizing how those drinks are prepared, stored, and served to ensure both quality and safety.

Although it's impossible to predict North Carolina's next move, the tightening of regulations around distributor and wholesaler free services suggests that new legislation may be coming. This could lead to stricter cleaning protocols, including requirements for documenting cleaning schedules and providing proof of maintenance. If such changes occur, non-compliance could result in more frequent inspections, fines, and potentially even business closure. Staying proactive and prepared for new regulations could help you avoid unnecessary stress and save valuable time if these tighter rules are enacted.

Why You Should Consider a Professional Beer Line Cleaning Service

Now that we’ve covered the risks, liabilities, and business impacts of cleaning your beer lines yourself, you might be wondering: What’s the alternative? The answer is simple: hire a professional beer line cleaning service like Brew-tiful Lines!

Expertise and Training:  Professional beer line cleaners have the right knowledge, tools, and experience to get the job done efficiently and effectively. They’ll ensure that all parts of your system are properly sanitized, removing any contaminants without damaging the equipment. Unlike other professional services in our area our cleaning and repair service is combined which means that we are checking for draft system performance and can troubleshoot on site. There is no middle-man because your draft technician is the same person capable of making repairs and we carry an inventory of replacement parts to ensure your draft systems are up and running with little to no down time.

Consistency: A professional service can set up a regular cleaning schedule, ensuring your lines are consistently maintained. This helps avoid the buildup of bacteria and yeast, ensuring fresh, great-tasting beer every time.

Time and Cost Savings: While it might seem like an expense, hiring a professional service is an investment in the long-term health of your business. With clean lines, you’ll avoid challening staffing schedules to accommodate hours of line cleaning, costly repairs, fines, and the potential loss of customer trust. Plus, you free up your staff to do what they do best — provide exceptional service.

Peace of Mind: Finally, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’re compliant with legislation while safeguarding your reputation, liability, and equipment, and protecting your customers without  having to create new schedules and training for staff or carry your own equipment, chemicals, and parts.

Conclusion

While it may seem tempting to take the DIY route with cleaning your beer lines, the risks far outweigh the rewards. From health hazards and legal liabilities to damage to your business and equipment, attempting to clean beer lines on your own can lead to costly consequences. Investing in a professional beer line cleaning service ensures your lines are properly maintained, your beers taste great, and your business stays compliant with regulations.

So, next time you ask yourself, “Can’t I just clean my own beer lines?” — remember, it's always smarter to leave it to the pros. If you're ready to get your beer lines cleaned and maintained by professionals who know their stuff, reach out to Brew-tiful Lines today=we'd love to serve you!