Do Dirty Beer Lines Actually Make You Drunker?
Not drunker. But dirty draught lines can indeed make you sicker. “Draught lines should be cleaned every four weeks, or any time a bar is changing from one style of beer to another,” says Mandie Murphy, co-owner of Toronto’s Left Field Brewery. “Bacteria can build up in draught lines, and over time, that can make you sick and make the beer taste off.”
And, says Roger Mittag, founder of Ottawa-based beer education company Thirst For Knowledge, it can cause calcification in draught lines, commonly known as beer stone. “But I wouldn’t expect someone to get more intoxicated from them,” he adds. The thing that actually makes you drunker? Pounding beer on an empty stomach.
