Foaming and Stuck Keg Issues

So I've spent two days searching the forums for an answer to this, and I haven't figured it out yet. I brewed a Watermelon Wheat, transferred to corny keg, and carbonated at 14 PSI for 2 weeks at 40 degrees. Its sitting in my kegerator hooked up to a faucet through an insulated collar. I originally used the default lines the keg kit came with, which looked like 5 feet of 3/16 line. I hooked the beer line to it, and tapped, and nothing but foam came out. Now, the weird part is it's acting like it's empty because it gurgles and when I stop pouring the lines have barely any beer in it, but mostly empty pockets with some beer in. After doing some reading, I changed out the line for a longer 3/16 line, which I decided to go for broke and hooked up 15 feet of line coiled. After letting it sit overnight to chill the line, I tried again with absolutely no change in situation. I've tried reducing the serving pressure and raising the serving pressure, I haven't had enough time to actually change the carbonation of the beer itself. I thought I might have a clogged line somewhere, so I purged the tank and sanitised the whole area and my hands and took apart the QD, the beer out port, and removed the dip tube and looked at everything. Everything is spotless with no particles whatsoever, although there was traces of foam.

I know my beer line is too long at 15 feet, but I'm trying to figure out why I'm not getting at least some beer out. Right now a 60/40 or a 80/20 foam/beer ratio would at least make me start experimenting with balancing the system, I'm just feeling like there is something else preventing me from betting anything other than foam. The other weird part is that when I watch the lines, I see a stuttering effect like foam is coming in, stopping, and starting again at a high rate of speed. Anyways, I'm at my wits end. I've changed out the faucet, QD, line, poppet, and port, and I'm at a loss what else might be going on. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

If there's mostly air in the line and no beer you must have a blockage somewhere. Sounds like you checked all that though - you pulled the beer dip tube all the way out and checked the bottom, right? I assume you've checked that the disconnect is on all the way. Have you used this keg before? The only thing coming to mind is a new dip tube that doesn't fit right and is getting blocked on the bottom of the keg or something. Hmm...

Any chance the beer out and gas in are mixed up?

Definately got the gas and liquid in the right spots. I'll try changing the dip tube. There was no gunk on the bottom so I don't know. It is my first time using this keg but I've got three others to experiment with. Thanks for the tips thus far.

Sounds like the gas is bypassing the diptube, in which case there's only a couple possible causes. Most likely cause is the liquid side diptube o-ring is either cracked, old and deformed, or the post on top of it isn't tightened down enough to compress it properly. Less likely is the gas and liquid diptubes got switched. The least likely cause is a crack or pinhole in the upper part of the diptube. Remove the diptube and have a look at the o-ring.

^ Agreed. All of it

Cheers!

The only other issue is there could be a pin hole in the liquid dip tube above the liquid level.

JRems said:

The only other issue is there could be a pin hole in the liquid dip tube above the liquid level.

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Juan Moore's post covered that...

Cheers!

So to add closure to this thread, the problem was wort sediment on the bottom of the keg. I had failed to strain the brew when transferring and this was causing the problem. The pour is perfect now and the beer tastes wonderful. It was a pain in the you know what transferring carbonated brew but I made it work. To other newbies such as myself, make sure you run the siphon through some sort of straining mechanism when kegging. Thanks to everyone who responded. Your help was invaluable.

cnmaestro said:

So to add closure to this thread, the problem was wort sediment on the bottom of the keg. I had failed to strain the brew when transferring and this was causing the problem. The pour is perfect now and the beer tastes wonderful. It was a pain in the you know what transferring carbonated brew but I made it work. To other newbies such as myself, make sure you run the siphon through some sort of straining mechanism when kegging. Thanks to everyone who responded. Your help was invaluable.

Click to expand...

Actually, I highly recommend NOT straining to the keg- as it will oxidize the beer. Careful racking is all that is needed. I'd consider cooling the fermenter before racking if possible, so that the majority of the gunk drops out and then racking the beer to the keg. I've gone through about 300 kegs of homebrew, and only had one plug up due to debris in the keg. (It was a big huge IPA with about 17 ounces of hops and some of the hop debris clogged my diptube).

Moving carbonated beer to another keg is easy, if the diptube can be unclogged long enough to jump it to a clean keg. It can be pushed with co2, to avoid any chance of oxidizing.

cnmaestro said:

So to add closure to this thread, the problem was wort sediment on the bottom of the keg. I had failed to strain the brew when transferring and this was causing the problem. The pour is perfect now and the beer tastes wonderful. It was a pain in the you know what transferring carbonated brew but I made it work. To other newbies such as myself, make sure you run the siphon through some sort of straining mechanism when kegging. Thanks to everyone who responded. Your help was invaluable.

Click to expand...

For the future, you can always try cutting 1/2" or 3/4" off the bottom of the dip tube. This will stop you from getting a hard blockage (usually).

bwarbiany said:

For the future, you can always try cutting 1/2" or 3/4" off the bottom of the dip tube. This will stop you from getting a hard blockage (usually).

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What's the best way to do this without pinching the tube or getting other unwanted results?

Yooper said:

Actually, I highly recommend NOT straining to the keg- as it will oxidize the beer. Careful racking is all that is needed. I'd consider cooling the fermenter before racking if possible, so that the majority of the gunk drops out and then racking the beer to the keg. I've gone through about 300 kegs of homebrew, and only had one plug up due to debris in the keg. (It was a big huge IPA with about 17 ounces of hops and some of the hop debris clogged my diptube).

Moving carbonated beer to another keg is easy, if the diptube can be unclogged long enough to jump it to a clean keg. It can be pushed with co2, to avoid any chance of oxidizing.

Click to expand...

Would wrapping the ends of the siphon tube with paint strainer material still oxidize the beer?

cnmaestro said:

What's the best way to do this without pinching the tube or getting other unwanted results?

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Dremel! The dremel cutting wheel should rip right through that.

But it's strong enough to stand up to a hacksaw if you want to go that route.

cnmaestro said:

Would wrapping the ends of the siphon tube with paint strainer material still oxidize the beer?

Click to expand...

Maybe- it depends on if it clogs up. It might not, but I've never had good luck with it. It could easily be my technique, though.

cnmaestro said:

Would wrapping the ends of the siphon tube with paint strainer material still oxidize the beer?

Click to expand...

Not as long as you keep the business end submerged. I dry hop virtually everything, always using pellets, and after crash-cooling I still a square of sanitized nylon strainer material on my autosiphon with a sanitized rubber band to keep the random bits of pellet mush out of my serving kegs...

Cheers!