beer in my gas line

Ok I made a mistake and got beer into my gas lines. What do I do now? How to clean? How long can I leave moisture in the lines? Did I damage my regulator?

I have a std regulator and wanted to serve two kegs at once. My LHBS recommended getting another inline regulator or manifold to prevent this from happening. I went with the stainless steel t fitting and planned to upgrade when I got my government check.

I am running one keg and have a t-fitting with a second gas disconnect not connected to anything. I did not purge the gas when doing the 30 psi 36 hour trick.

Consider getting 1 or 2 cut off valve(s) with built in check valves to keep liquid out of your regulator or getting these check valves:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/va...ory_name=45&product_id=15641&variant_id=64174

I don't know what you did wrong but I fail to see where going to 2 regulators is going to help keep liquid out of your regulator or gas lines.

Yeah, most people use check valves to prevent backflow. That said, I run six kegs with simple tees and no check valves, and have never had a prob.

No, you didn't ruin your regulator. Just take your lines apart and soak them in cleaner, sanitize, and reassemble. It won't hurt anything if the beer sits in there for a little while.

thanks for the cleaning advice, I will clean and sanitize and reinstall the lines.


I know how I got beer in the lines, I was force carbing at 30psi, turned the shut off on my regulator set to 10 psi and forgot to bleed out the keg. when I open the regulator it sucked beer up. nothing got as far as the regulator, but lesson learned.

fyi I am drinking a nicely carbed hefewiesen right now while typing

i know when i did this i felt like an idiot.

Hollow4 said:

i know when i did this i felt like an idiot.

Click to expand...

Been there...

I've had some issues with kegging. I currently have some infection issues and am replacing all my beer and gas line. I've gotten some infected beer into the gas lines. Does anyone know how I can sanitize the regulators in case any bacteria has gotten up into them?

BierMuncher said:

Been there...

Click to expand...

X2.............
JJ

Been there also.

conpewter said:

I've had some issues with kegging. I currently have some infection issues and am replacing all my beer and gas line. I've gotten some infected beer into the gas lines. Does anyone know how I can sanitize the regulators in case any bacteria has gotten up into them?

Click to expand...

Push sanitizer through them...


...really.

Between the regulator and the manifold I use an inline Hepa filter. Each valve going to a keg has a check valve to prevent backflow. Once I have everything sanitized, no beer can get back into the manifold and so it remains sanitized.

MoreBeer | Sanitary Filter
MoreBeer | Gas Manifold - 4 Way

One other thing, I just saw a picture of EdWort's Keezer, and he marks his outlets on his Corny kegs with yellow electrical tape...Phenomenal idea. If you reverse your lines by accident, this can also lead to beer in your co2 lines... Credit given where credit is due...

Here is a link to his picture http://www.krach.org/Homebrew/KeezerIsFull.jpg

I'm on my way out to get some colored tape, the multiple rolls of black tape I have just won't do the trick....
Good luck!

Oh, and I have had this problem, too... You're definately not alone.

Thanks for the idea of putting a sanitary filter between the Co2 tank and the kegs. I have 3 regulators so I'd need 3 filters but that would be ok.

As for pushing sanitizer through them, I'd love to but I'm worried something would rust, have you actually done that and had no issues with the regs working? I normally sanitize with star-san, will that work?