First time kegging question

Just picked up my tank and regulator today, and hooked it up to the Sanyo 4911 + double tap tower I built a couple months ago. The beer is an amber brewed awhile ago which spent 7 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in keg at room temp, and 4 more weeks in keg at serving temp. All of this time with no CO2 in it.

I hooked it up and dispensed a glass. At first it came out very slowly because it was clogged with yeast. My tubes go all the way down to the bottom and hover over the dimple in the center. All at once it became unclogged and spewed out beer with yeasty particles. After a pint, clear beer.

Although flat, it. Was. Delicious. Absolutely wonderful. It's the beer I mentioned in this thread: Rate my first self-made recipe, please


Anyway, on to the question:
I raised presure to 30PSI and shook the keg for 10 minutes. I will sample it in a couple hours to see if it's right. But, I did try to dispense some just a minute ago, and it spurts out for a millisecond and then dwindles off. At first it was beer, and I got about an inch of beer with yeast particles. Now, the beer line is all foam, and that's all that comes out of the tap.

Should I do something, or will it be fine in a little while?

It needs to settle. This is how I carbonate my beer as well, drop the temp of the beer, crank on the pressure and shake it. It will take a few minutes for it to settle. also, make sure you bleed off the 30psi in the tank before you try to serve it at 12.

Yeah, but it seems to be clogged - nothing will come out of the keg right now, and it's at 30 PSI.

Still stuck, going to back the pressure off for now... don't know what to do.

The beer line is all foam, and moves out sooooo sloooooowly.

Come on, guys! Help a fella out, I've got 15 gallons of beer, I'm sober, and I can't do anything about it!

Put your gas line on your liquid out post and blast some CO2 through the dip tube to unclog it.

The disconnect will fit, but tightly. Alternativey you can remove the posts and switch them before doing this.

Sounds to me like you've got more than just yeast. It sounds like you racked a bunch of trub too. Shaking it resuspended the yeast and trub. I'd say your best bet at this point is to dump the pressure remove the beverage tube and clean it out along with everything else (lines, faucet ect). Before putting the beverage tube back in, I'd take a torx or phillips head screw driver insert it into the beverage tube and bend the tube more so that it won't sit on the bottom & you won't get all that trub and yeast back into your distribution lines. Or you could cut an inch or so off the dip tube. Then you could rack to another keg to get your beer off of the trub and yeast or leave it in and drink it up fast before the yeast and trub cause off flavors.

Try to be more careful as you rack to the kegs next time so you don't transfer all that trub and yeast.

I'd be leary of trying to put the gas connector on the beverage post it's very difficult getting them on and back off. If you could hook the gas up to a beverage connector and blow it out that might work better.

Ok, I'll try that.

But, I have a problem with the in/out connectors on another keg. I was entirely unable to get the connectors on one of the posts - I assume I have the wrong post on there. How do you tell the difference between an in and an out post for the keg when they're all sitting in a pile? I put them all back in with new O-rings when I got the kegs and didn't know there was a difference in size.

The gas in should have notches in the bottom of the post, and the liquid out does not.

These are the different types of gas in posts, note the notches on the bottom.

Thanks for the pics.

Well that throws a huge kink in my system.

Here's what I've got:
One keg (out of four) that worked on the first try. Neither post is notched.

All six of my other kegs don't work because the black connector won't go on any of the posts and the white connector will only fit on one of them. The one it fits on is NOT notched.

You are using all the same types of Disconnects and posts right (ball or pin lock)?

They are all ball lock.

I say use the air on the out side and push the gunk back..Than let it settle for a day or 2 before you run the beer. I had this problem with an IPA and I dry hopped it in the keg..I shook it moving it and it clogged..I shot some air back in the liquid side..let it sit for a few days and than worked like a charm..Now that u have CO2 for the next batch I suggest leaving on 12 to 15 PSI for a week in the fridge..much more consistant carbing than 30 PSI

Jay

Without seeing your system, sounds like you have a ton of incorrect posts. If you can get some photos up that will help drastically! If you are trying to get the disconnect onto the wrong type of post that could easily explain your flow problems as the poppet valve may not be getting correctly depressed. On *most* (Read: Not All) posts, the gas in should take a larger wrench, 7/8 IIRC. Again that is not a standard so do not use that as your only indicator.

Yeah I am pretty stumped without photos. Seems like the posts are wrong, but you said that some of them don't fit with any of your disconnects right?

Is it possible that the connect itself is simply stuck? I've had instances where a tiny bit of beer gets into the connecter and freezes up the little balls inside.

If you look on the inside of a connect, you'll see four tiny balls (insert joke here) that when you go to put on the post, pull into the connector, and then once on, pop back out to lock the connector on.

Like I was saying, I've had a tiny bit of beer dry on those balls and stick them in place... so when you go to put the connector on the post, it won't go on no matter how hard you push.

just take a little hot water and rinse out the inside of the connecter and that should free the balls (insert joke here).