Pin Lock Keg. How to cut stem for gas inlet?

I read that there is no pressure relief valve on pin locks and to purge the corny keg it is easiest to push in the center of the gas inlet side post. Well I tried that but my keg was full and I got sprayed...With further reading I found that you can cut the stem so that it will not be submerged in the beer and will not spray liquid only air.

My ? is what is the best way to cut the stem? I was thinking with a pipe cutter like that you would use for cutting copper pipe...I currently have a keg full with Rye P.A. so I won't be doing it until the keg is empty...

You shouldn't need to cut the tube at all. Are you sure you pushed on the gas side and not the liquid side?

If the keg is so full that you get sprayed with the normal gas tube (2" or so), then your keg is overfull.

try tilting your keg so any air will be directly under the gas inlet.

Of the 12 or 13 pin-locks I have, there is a variety of length in the pressure/gas side, ranging from 2" to ~.33" (basically enough for a flare to hold the o-ring), all of which I am confident were done by a cola company.

To answer your question, yes a pipe cutter would work fantastic!! Also a dremel, a cut-off wheel, basically anything that would cut it would would be fine. You could also pour a pint (or a few) until you got your liquid level below your pressure side tube.

Some of my lids for my pin-locks were retro'd somewhere along the lines from the cola company with the same pressure relief valves found on most push locks, but most of mine are with the preset emergency type blow offs - just be careful when pushing the center down you don't get something in there too deep and gouge your o-ring on the poppet valve.

JewBrew said:

try tilting your keg so any air will be directly under the gas inlet.

Click to expand...

this was posted while I was typing - yes this would work fantastic as well!!!

I did try the tilting method with no luck...Is there any harm in -overfilling- (besides getting sprayed during the purging of a pin lock style keg)
I have read that some folks cut back the stem, I am guessing to gain that extra inch or so in the keg. I had a large batch & kegging for the first time = didn't want to bottle any this go round. I think the simple solution is to just not fill the keg so high... Thanks Folks.

All the gas-in diptubes on my fleet of pinlocks were cut to no more than 3/4" with a tubing cutter. Even if the keg is overfilled, there is little risk of beer getting out the gas-in side. Highly recommended.

I "overfill" all the time. If you have a check valve in your iar line you will not have beer backing up. Also, I do not purge after. I sanitize the keg by putting in some starsan, hooking it up, and running it through the beer line with COs2. that - "pre-purges" my keg before I put any beer in it. Then I fill it with as much beer as possible and close it up.