Hello All,
I’m not sure what I’ve done wrong with my keg system. I kegged my beer a week ago and put in on gas to carbonate. Yesterday I connected the tap and opened it, and only a little dribble comes out. The keg has been at 11psi for a week and seems to be keeping a good seal. The connectors seem to be on correctly. I disconnected everything, let the gas out of the keg, reconnected and waited 24 hours, and today I still have the same problem. Any ideas what to do?
You likely switched the beer and gas posts. They look the same, but aren’t.
Yup, that’s my guess as well or you flipped the dip tubes.
Degas, check posts and tubes,
Hop particles can plug a keg. Release the keg pressure with the relief valve. Take off the out post, pull the dip tube. Make sure the dip tube is clear, a dip tube brush is something you should have as it works well clearing obstructions. Then look at the post and poppet upside down. If it is green in there, you need to get the hops out by pressing out the poppet, cleaning, and pressing the poppet back into the post. Then sanitize and reassemble the dip tube and post on the keg. I have done this in the past.
If you had the in and out switched, they can be terrible to get off. If they were not bad getting off, I would get out the wrench.
I had this happen to me as well, in my case it was a dip tube clogged with hops
That’s the only time I had that happen. It was dribble and foam. Too much hops in an IPA… Uh wait. You know what I mean. Clogged the dip tube and liquid out post.
Yup, had that happen exactly one time and thankfully it was an IPA that wasn’t that great. Lesson learned.
Also, it could be frozen if your temperature was low. I’ve had that happen to me. The whole keg doesn’t necessarily freeze. Just a little bit of ice in the bottom of the keg or inside the post could do it.
Yes, this has happened to me, about twice IIRC.
Have you asked the beer nicely to come out?
I’ve had the same experience as others with hops clogging the post. It usually happens when I get greedy when transferring to the keg and suck a bunch of trub up and into the keg. Trying to get every last drop out of the fermenter usually backfires on me this way. Especially with an IPA or other dry hopped beer.
I have had a few clogs overtime. In those cases I raised the gauge pressure to 30 PSI to serve a glass (it will be 90% foam). Remember to turn it back down and purge the co2 after.
On one unlucky batch the dip tube kept clogging every few days. I had to repeat the procedure each time.
I have one keg that won’t pour at higher pressures. Release the gas and it pours fine. Gas it back up and it won’t pour. It’s weird, and it usually winds up with a Belgian that I want higher pressure on, but it works out eventually. I have no idea why it does this.
Joe, I can visualize the extra pressure disfiguring the little o-ring on the spring loaded poppet so that it seals the liquid out port right at the quick disconnect.
Anyway, it can’t be any where else in the system other than the poppet, can it?
I got some of those floating dip tubes to draw from the top of the keg vs bottom. Works great.
I’ve been real tempted to buy one of those. I’ve sort of decided that I need to focus on getting better transferring procedures nailed down before I try one of those bad boys out.
I wouldn’t think so. But since it pours fine if I blow off some pressure, I haven’t tried to figure it out.
I can’t recall if I’ve marked the keg or not… Should have. Just kegged a saison in what might be that keg.
I read this last sentence about ten times and kept thinking, there’s an AHA member named Degas?
Anyway, I bet this is my problem. The posts are on the right place and it’s not a hoppy beer, but I suddenly thought, I bet I switched the tubes. Though I wouldn’t rule out gunk. In any event, another useful Forum thread. I will “Degas” the keg and make sure the tubes are in the right place and blow out the tubes and make sure there’s no ice and so on.
Clearly I need to name this Edgar’s Cream Ale…
That may look like absinthe, but that’s really me last week, winding down after work with a RR Damnation.
