This morning I was woken by my Pristine Precious with the announcement that my beer tap was leaking beer all over the floor. And so here is my question: why the f* did I ever start with all this sh*?
Not sure if this is why it happened, but ensure you have Oetiker clamps on any hose connections. They are a life saver.
What type of tap are you using and what pressure.
I have been kegging for a little over a year and feel your pain. I woke up to the same and it was a leaky picnic tap. It will take you a while to work the kinks out.
That’s happened to a lot of us keggers over the years. Beer can leak from loose clamps, fittings, leaky posts, and quick disconnects. Easy solution? Disconnect your liquid (beer) line from the keg at the end of the day, then reconnect when you want to pour. The first time I lost a keg of beer all over the floor was also the last.
it’s this one, without a line: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=25689.msg330988#msg330988
The “compensator” lever was open just a tiny little bit, and apparently that was enough for a leak. Not too much, about half a liter or so but the beer gets in all the nooks and crannies.
I think in this case I’m a fast learner…
I have a similar setup. Are you saying the tap (top lever) was closed but it leaked because the compensator lever wasn’t off? That’s scary.
Yep. The top lever can be pulled backward and forward, and I think it was not completely vertical.
So no-one has an answer to my original question? 
Because it beats the hell out of sanitizing and filling 50 bottles. Just my opinion though. 
+1
I’ll also add that there is a possibility that your poppit is not properly seated or plugged up preventing the gas from flowing properly, it happens sometimes
Yep. And going to the fridge for a fresh draft pour is just awesome.
I mulled this question over the last week while doing other research. I have asked this question as well. I poked around to see if this dissertation had been cited in the Forum, and apparently not:
Murray, D. W. (2011). Home brewing and serious leisure: A mixed methods examination (Doctoral dissertation, Auburn University).
Murray states that past the beginner level, motivation to continue a hobby includes “the requirement that the activity involves overcoming hardships and difficulty, often necessitated in attaining competence coupled with a significant investment in goal-related behavior over time” (p. 18). I’ve seen similar claims in other scholarly materials related to motivation for leisure activities.
If you go back to the first time you bottled, you were probably excited that you were actually making beer! In bottles! But it likely didn’t take long for your interest in bottling to plateau. Once you get past basic issues such as sanitation, measuring sugar by weight versus volume, using a capper, etc., bottling is… bottling. The laborious “laundry” of homebrewing.
There’s plenty to suggest on the Forum and elsewhere that kegging requires a level of expertise that separates keggers from homebrew beginners, which itself is motivation enough for a hobbyist. This week, I’m excited that I appear to have no leaks or other errors in my first kegging attempt – to the point where when I get home from work or even a shopping trip I make a beeline to look at the regulator, and have repeatedly tested the beer despite my intention to “set and forget” for at least a week. I am not sure what comes after kegging, except more kegs, but since it lacks the time-intensive drudgework of bottling, there’s no de-motivating factor. But meanwhile, the frustration appears to be actually part of the motivation.
Sorry for this nerdy response… literature searches on this have been a side hobby for me this week.
Why are you coming forward only now, after all this time? In order to get my frustration levels down to that of a suckling puppy I had to buy an expensive beergun, and now I have started bottling again from my kegs.
Buying a beer gun is a great purchase anyway IMO. Gives you a lot of flexibilty. If I have beer(s) in fermenters that I’m excited to get on tap I’ll bottle partial kegs to make room. Great to be able to fill bottles for comps or gifts on short notice too.
There is an inevitability to beer guns. I already want one!
I despise bottling. Hate it. If I didn’t switch over to kegging, I wouldn’t be brewing anymore. I’m convinced of that. The thought that I’m going to have to bottle four bottles to send to the NHC makes me cringing.
By switching to kegging, I save about an 2 hours for each batch, which added up is over time is over 2 days. It would be more now since I’m brewing double batches. I don’t have cases of bottles stacked everywhere. My wife is happy since I’m not soaking bottles in the sink anymore to remove labels. I feel much more comfortable cellaring a keg for a year instead of two cases of bottles with no ill effects. Your friends are uber jealous that you have 4 beers on tap in your basement. And most importantly, to me, is that I think my beer tastes better out of a keg.
And one more I guess… Because I keg, I don’t have to bottle.
Your question is a good one. I recently started kegging as well and I don’t see a huge advantage over bottling. It’s just different. I’ve been bottling for so long, I have the process down so that it involves minimal effort. The hardest part was making sure the dishwasher was empty on bottling day so I could use it to sanitize my bottles. Then I fill and cap the bottles and forget about them. The keg is a bit easier on the filling end, but I keep fiddling with the keg, making sure the pressure is right, making sure my lines stay clean, no leaks, etc. I suppose it takes a little time and experience to get the kegging process down as well, but so far I don’t see it as a great time saver. That said, I don’t regret it (yet), either.
Another downside of kegging - with bottles, I could stretch a batch out for 6 months and would occasionally be surprised by a lost bottle discovered in the back of the fridge. My first keg was empty in less than a month. I just tapped my second. We’ll see how that goes.
I don’t worry a whole lot with cleaning the lines. Think about a craft beer bar. They are pumping 100s of gallons of beer through a line without cleaning it. When I notice that they are getting discolored or gunked up, I’ll just replace them. I’m about a year and a half in with my keg system. My lines are still clear. It’s a 4 tap system. I’d estimate 6-8 kegs through each line without cleaning them. Maybe this isn’t best practice, but I’ve not noticed any ill effects.
I can’t disagree more. Good bars will clean their lines regularly. I know of a few bars that list when a line was last cleaned next to the ABV.