Need some help troubleshooting Corny

Rick500 · 05-23-2009, 04:11 AM

I'm a bit of a Corny keg noob.

I'm getting ready to keg an Irish Red ale. At this point I'm just sanitizing everything, so I have a couple gallons of StarSan solution in the Corny. I figured while I have the StarSan in the keg, I'd run some through the beer line of the kegerator, then run some water through.

The kegerator was set up for Sanke, so I took the Sanke keg out, cut the beer and gas lines and installed quick disconnects, hooked them up to the posts on the Corny, pressurized to about 10 pounds, opened the tap, and expected the StarSan solution to start flowing.

For some reason that I'm still trying to figure out, it didn't. [Edit: I did check that the gas line was connected to 'in' and the beer line was connected to 'out'.]

The CO2 is pressurizing the keg (evidenced by pulling the release valve on the Corny; gas comes out), but there's nothing flowing through the beer line.

Actually, there's maybe a teaspoon of StarSan solution that was pushed up into the beer line. But that's it.

As I said, I'm a complete noob to Corny kegs (although I've tapped a few Sankes in my time), so I'm not sure what could be wrong. I don't know if there's something super-simple that I'm overlooking--some kind of valve or something I don't know about.

I read the FAQs, etc., and didn't see anything obvious that I'm missing.

From what I understand, the only thing that could really be wrong would be that the liquid pickup tube is clogged, the poppet is not working, or the 'out' post or valve is just not working for whatever reason.

Any troubleshooting advice? My next step, I guess, is to pull the keg, release pressure, and pull the 'out' post and disassemble that whole side.

enderwig · 05-23-2009, 04:42 AM

Are there any obstructions in your dip tube? Are you sure the keg holds pressure and isn't leaking the c02 you put into it?

flaminpi3 · 05-23-2009, 04:47 AM

Does gas come through the tap or just nothing what so ever? If there's gas but no liquid you might want to check your o-rings on the out side. Are you absolutely sure that the quick disconnect is all the way on the out post? If so, get a dip tube brush (you'll need one anyway), and check for stoppage; the poppet valve should be depressing properly if the disconnect is on right. That's all I can think of right now.

alpo · 05-23-2009, 05:00 AM

My first thought is that the disconnect isn't seated all the way on. If it is a ball lock, make sure you pull up all the way on the disconnect collar and push down firmly to seat it, then release the collar. It should be totally snug and you won't be able to pull it off without lifting the collar.

You might also try swapping out the disconnect if you have another one. I've had a defective one before that didn't open the valve, though it was a gas one. It was missing a couple balls and wasn't sitting right.

Rick500 · 05-23-2009, 08:33 PM

Yep, the disconnect collar on the beer side just wasn't pushed all the way down. It must have been jammed somehow, because I gave it several good pushes to make sure it was on there right, but as soon as I pulled it off the post and put it back on again, it went on further than it had before, and all was good. Thanks for the responses.