First kegging

So I finished my first kegging last night, and it was certainly interesting. Figured out how all of my equipment worked and kegged a raspberry wheat beer with no problems. Unfortunately, I kegged an ipa only to find out that the pressure release valve leaked. I managed to MacGyver an o ring by cutting a bit of beer line, and after lubing it and twisting the valve to the right angle, I managed to hold both kegs at 12 psi and left them over night in my kegerator to get down to temp.

This afternoon after buying a new valve from my lhbs, I took out the kegs and bled them both out. I set the pressure to 30 psi and shook them for two minutes. I then bled them and set them both to 12 psi again. I hooked everything up and poured two nice tall glasses of foam. All subsequent pours were foam too.

Turns out the compressor was sitting right next to the heater for our apartment, over heated and shut down, so the beer was around 60 degrees F. I'm guessing this is why all my pours were foam and why the "burst carbing" didn't work. I moved the kegerator to a different wall and started it back up.

My question is, can I just let the kegs sit on 12 psi at 37 degrees F for a week or two (aka: carb them like I probably should have in the first place) or do I need to account for the co2 they sat on at god knows what temp for the past 24 hours?

Can't wait to drink these guys. My brand new danby kegerator build came out great!

For what it is worth, IMO, kegging is a lot like bottling beer. Takes less time, but it still takes some patience. I "shook" my first kegged beer and had glass after glass of foam. I don't do that anymore. I set it and forget it for about a week or so.

I'm sure the warmer temp contributed to it a little bit.

CHans3 said:

My question is, can I just let the kegs sit on 12 psi at 37 degrees F for a week or two (aka: carb them like I probably should have in the first place) or do I need to account for the co2 they sat on at god knows what temp for the past 24 hours?

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Yes, just leave them at your serving temp and pressure for a week or two. It's probably a good thing the beer was warm, otherwise shaking at 30psi for two min probably would have overcarbed the beer. It might be overcarbed even though it was warmer than you thought. How long are your beer lines? Even after getting the beer to the proper temp and carb level you might still have foam issues if your system isn't balanced.

Thanks for the replies. My fridge still won't cool tho. I moved it away from the wall with the heater but the compressor is still super hot. I think this may be because it is still too close to the wall even tho the one it is against does not have a heater on it. If I leave it off for a few days and move it away from the wall, will this help my problem?

I ran the kegerator for a while after I finished the build and it cooled of fine. Is there anything else that could be causing this problem?