Sealing issue with keg top?

Yesterday I was loading up a beer into a keg, and I sealed the lid with ~30 PSI. Normally at this point, I lower the pressure and purge the keg of oxygen.

What I noticed was that as I was purging the keg, as the pressure dropped low (almost emptied of CO2), I would start getting some bubbling out of a small point along the edge of the lid. I checked the ring and it looks in good shape, and I applied a fair amount of keg lube to the ring. I resealed it and sprayed more starsan and did the purge again. It seems like it's sealed as long as there is some pressure built up in the keg (forcing the lid up against the top), but if I depressurize it and it drops to a certain point, then it develops a small leak.

It passes the starsan test when it's pressurized - should I be concerned that I'm going to develop a CO2 leak at the lid? If the ring is good and I've applied keg lube, is it possible the opening is just deformed? It's a new (reconditioned) keg that I just bought, so I haven't actually used it before.

Many lids will break their seal at low pressures and, IMO, this is okay AS LONG AS that "low pressure" is lower than your serving pressure . If it loses it's seal at 10-12 psi then you need to worry, but if it doesn't lose it's seal until 6-8 psi then you should be good.

To fix the lid, sometimes it just takes a little wiggling side-to-side as you're filling the keg to get it set in the right place. Also, sometimes it takes a little twisting of the lid as your filling to set the lid in the right place. These are easier to do than explain .

Lastly, I like to initially check my freshly filled kegs by applying my serving pressure ~10psi so see if the keg will seal up at that pressure. If it does, then I'm totally satisfied. If it doesn't then I'll slowly increase the pressure to find out about the point that it seals. If it's soon after my serving pressure then I'm okay, but if it's much beyond 15+psi then I'm a bit more weary.

Hope this helps!

You should note the pressure at which it leaks and if it's below or near your serving pressure address it before it's all carbed up.

You could try flipping the lid around 180*. Not sure why this works, maybe just gets a better seat.

I use a second gasket on two of my kegs. And one of those also needs nickels under the the lid legs.

Thanks for the advice. It's pretty low pressure I'd say, probably <5 psi where the bubbles start forming. It's right toward the end of the purge, where it's really just exhaling the incoming CO2 from the tank (if that makes sense)

Dr_Horrible said:

Thanks for the advice. It's pretty low pressure I'd say, probably <5 psi where the bubbles start forming. It's right toward the end of the purge, where it's really just exhaling the incoming CO2 from the tank (if that makes sense)

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In that case, I wouldn't worry about it leaking while it's in your kegerator/keezer. BUT, you'll want to make sure you give it plenty of gas prior to that because you're beer will absorb a fair amount at room temperature and can leave your headspace below the 5psi threshold. I generally connect all of my kegs to co2 for 24 hours at room temp after kegging just to get them started and ensure I don't have the headspace lose it's pressure, after then they seem to stay very well pressurized for many weeks.

stpug said:

In that case, I wouldn't worry about it leaking while it's in your kegerator/keezer. BUT, you'll want to make sure you give it plenty of gas prior to that because you're beer will absorb a fair amount at room temperature and can leave your headspace below the 5psi threshold. I generally connect all of my kegs to co2 for 24 hours at room temp after kegging just to get them started and ensure I don't have the headspace lose it's pressure, after then they seem to stay very well pressurized for many weeks.

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it's hooked up to the regulator so it should stay at 12PSI as it starts absorbing, correct? I left it hooked up to the CO2 tank I didn't unhook it.

If you have a persistent lid leak, you can also try buying a larger/thicker o-ring. these did the trick on 2 of my kegs.
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/OVERSIZE-KEG-LID-SEALING-O-RING-P58.aspx

Dr_Horrible said:

it's hooked up to the regulator so it should stay at 12PSI as it starts absorbing, correct? I left it hooked up to the CO2 tank I didn't unhook it.

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If the beer is cold then 12psi is fine, if the beer is not cold then 20-25psi would be better. Leave it for several hours to 1 day and you should not have to worry about losing your headspace pressure in your keg.

Stick a dime under each lever foot...

Cheers!

On my less than perfect kegs, I apply gas while pulling the handle up. This allows me to quickly get the lid to find home and seal. Then I clamp the lid lever over. Seems much easier to find a good seal position this way compared to fussing with the lid while already clamped.

day_trippr said:

Stick a dime under each lever foot...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

You beat me to it!

Also keg lube. Think you used enough? Try more!