Frozen keg?

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mrgreen4242

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I just finished my keezer and moved an ESB I've been aging for awhile (really didn't want to bottle it...) into a keg and threw it in the keezer to chill and then put it some gas. In the meantime, I washed and sanitized another keg, which I then used to sanitize my lines and faucets. The sanitizer shot right out of the faucet, all is well.

I then hooked my beer up to one of the faucets and wanted to have a little taste (knowing it won't be car bed but it's not green, and it's cold, so I was hoping for a little sample). I got the tiniest trickle out of it. I'm thinking my beer froze as this keg was on the bottom of the freezer, which is very small so it's basically touching the sides. So, I moved it up to the top shelf, raised the temp a few degrees C and checked it again this morning. Same problem. Im going to wire my fan to run continuously and add a couple inches of insulation under the bottom of the lower keg (as well as keeping the temp a little higher) and hopefully that will solve my problems.

However, is there anything else this could be? Is something else that could be wrong with the keg, and how would I test it? Anyone have any insight to how long i should wait for any icing to thaw before assuming it's a different problem (the keg has liquid, it sloshes around if i shake it, etc)? It was moved up and the temp increased around 9-10 last night, and I tested it this morning around 8. The keezer got down to 3.5C, but the probe is about 16-18" higher than the bottom of the keg, so it could have been really cold down there. I have it set to 5C now (differential of 2C), and will get the fan setup tonight so the temp should be more consistent throughout the whole keezer.

Just looking for advice/reassurance, i guess!
 
Are you sure CO2 is actually getting into the keg ? If you have a pressure release valve and pull it, does CO2 comes out as it should, with a nice pssshht ?

On one of my kegs, the gas poppet will not move much, and even though the pressure is right, when I pour a beer it will go very slowly because this poppet does not let CO2 get in fast enough.
 
mperceau said:
Are you sure CO2 is actually getting into the keg ? If you have a pressure release valve and pull it, does CO2 comes out as it should, with a nice pssshht ?

On one of my kegs, the gas poppet will not move much, and even though the pressure is right, when I pour a beer it will go very slowly because this poppet does not let CO2 get in fast enough.

I'm not 100% without doubt certain, but I'm pretty darn sure. I can hear the co2 rush out if I use the pressure release tool (pin locks) and I can hear it ... creep in... if I shake the keg around a bit (it's not fully carbed yet, so still absorbing co2).
 
I would bet you have some gunk clogging the pick up tube. Try realsing the pressure and then running some CO2 through the outlet. It should knock clear any gunk that got stuck in teh tube. Reconnect the gas to teh proper side and try again.

Good luck.

Edit: you may also want to check and see if your lines have crap in them. It happens sometimes.
 
cruelkix said:
I would bet you have some gunk clogging the pick up tube. Try realsing the pressure and then running some CO2 through the outlet. It should knock clear any gunk that got stuck in teh tube. Reconnect the gas to teh proper side and try again.

Good luck.

Suggestion about how to do this with a pin lock?
 
Suggestion about how to do this with a pin lock?

I have ball locks so I'm not overly sure, but maybe swap the connector from your beer line to your co2 line if they are not interchangable?

Edit: sorry I need to read my post before I post it instead of after. Fixed.
 
cruelkix said:
I have ball locks so I'm not overly sure, but maybe swap the connector from your gas line to your co2 line if they are not interchangable?

Hm, I think KegConnection advertises that they have quick disconnects on all their connectors, so maybe there is an easy way to do it. Also, saw your edit, and I'm sure the lines are clear - brand new and I can push sanitizer through them from another keg.

I'll try this out later, but I'm skeptical as the beer I there was aged for a long time in secondary and was very clear... Thanks!

Edit: come to think on it, I didn't disassemble this keg before filling it. It was "new" so i just soaked it in cleaner and then sanitizer. If there's something in the dip tube it was probably there when i got it... Can i bleed the pressure and then unscrew the poppet then check it out, so as not to blow anything into my beer (though it is already in there with it...)
 
Hm, I think KegConnection advertises that they have quick disconnects on all their connectors, so maybe there is an easy way to do it. Also, saw your edit, and I'm sure the lines are clear - brand new and I can push sanitizer through them from another keg.

I'll try this out later, but I'm skeptical as the beer I there was aged for a long time in secondary and was very clear... Thanks!


Gotcha. I don't usually secondary. I'm guessing you wont much anymore either once you get this keg thing working :p

One other suggestion, which happened to my buddy once, was his line was touching the freezer wall and the LINE froze. Took us a bit to figure that one out....

It was only a very small portion of the line that actually froze so it was hard to find. It was the part that was in direct contact with the wall.
 
Edit: come to think on it, I didn't disassemble this keg before filling it. It was "new" so i just soaked it in cleaner and then sanitizer. If there's something in the dip tube it was probably there when i got it... Can i bleed the pressure and then unscrew the poppet then check it out, so as not to blow anything into my beer (though it is already in there with it...)

Yeah you can totally bleed the pressure and unattach stuff, just make sure to sanitize it before you put it back in and try not to disrupt the keg while it has no pressure on it too much so that the CO2 stays blanketing the beer.
 
Also, saw your edit, and I'm sure the lines are clear - brand new and I can push sanitizer through them from another keg.


That kinda kills my frozen line theory as well. It has to be something in the keg then. If oyu can hear gas going in and beer isnt coming out it HAS to be a problem with the dip tube.

Your faucet isnt spewing gas when you open it is it? Absolutely nothing is coming out, right?

Edit: Also, liquids freeze from teh top down, so if your keg freezing had been teh problem the whole thing would have had to have been a chuck of ice. You would have heard nothing moving around in there for it to disrupt flow from teh bottom of the keg I would think.
 
This is funny. Just last night, well really early this morning, I wanted to take a sample of the witbier That was kegged a couple of weeks ago. I pulled the tap handle and got the same result as the OP. My original thought was that I had run out of CO2, that wasn't the case, so I then thought maybe the diptube was clogged. I threw the co2 line on the out connection, not all the way but just sorta jammed it on a little thinking this would clear the line. Well I had pulled the keg out of the fridge(just a mini fridge 2 kegs) and it made a strange noise. That noise was the sound of ice sloshing inside the keg. It wasn't completely frozen solid but a couple more days I think it would have. I just took it out and will let it thaw, good thing i've got other beer to drink.:eek:
 
UPDATE - Keg wasn't frozen. The dip tube seems to have been aligned poorly such that it was up against the bottom of the keg rather than down in the little "trough". I made a pin-lock socket tonight (first time I've used the Dremel in a couple years!) and just tacking it apart and putting it back together again seems to have fixed (put on a new gasket and cleaned it while I was there).

Still think I am going to switch my fan to run continuously to keep a more even temp in the keezer, though. Just makes sense; I did it one the same circuit as the compressor originally as a power saving thing, but I suspect that this thing will draw ~$20 worth of electricity/year so an extra few bucks for a 5V/700mA fan isn't going to break the back.

Thanks everyone!
 
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