Stopped up keg

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Todd820

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
65
Reaction score
11
Location
Concord
Just kegged a dry hopped beer and unfortunately could not prevent transfer of some of the trub - greedy I guess :). Got it all carbonated and went to draw out the first glass which had some hop floaties, no biggee - pitched it and was going in for my first official glass and at about half full, the keg beer slowed to trickle of foam. My guess, I have gunked up the tube. Tried to crank up the pressure and blow it out that way but no luck. Any advice? If I change out the CO2 connection on my line, can I safely blow that out or is my only option to transfer to a new keg? The beer is sooo tasty, it is killing me!
 
1. Try connecting the gas to the "beer out" post to blow hop debris out of the connection/pick up tube
2. Vent off the pressure, remove the beer pick up tube, rinse the plumbing clean, resanitize and reassemble
3. Cut the bottom 1/2 inch off the beer pickup tube with a hacksaw, sanitize and replace
4. If the above doesn't work (or if it keeps clogging) you might have to rack the beer to a new keg (or rack to a sanitized bucket) to separate the beer from the hop debris

Edit: next time you rack a heavily dry hopped beer to a keg, stretch a layer of nylon stocking over the end of the racking tube with a rubber band. Sanitize the whole set-up and presto! No more clogged kegs. I've used the stocking trick for years now and no more clogged keg nightmares.
 
Depending on how much hop material is in there and how clear you want the beer to get, and of course how soon you want to drink it, then your best bet may be to cold crash it in the keg and then rack to another keg. Since the beer is pretty carb'd already, you're not gonna lose too much carbonation. So once racked, you could probably start drinking almost immediately, once you hit it with serving pressure (and maybe just 20psi for a min or two + shake to re-carb anything lost).
 
Thanks for the suggestions! Definitely trying the nylon stocking with the next batch, may end up doing it if I have to rack to another keg - just so happens I just drank one dry :drunk:
 
Back
Top