Self-Pressurizing Keg

I have a 5 gal. corny full of ginger ale. It has slices of fresh ginger in the keg (cut into stick shapes large enough to not be able to plug the downtube).

It has a 4 foot (short) cobra tap on it. I de-pressurized the keg for serving and set the reg at 1psi, held the tap at chest level and poured with a *GUSH!* It was as if I poured at 20psi.

I checked my reg, hit the relief valve again, re-checked the reg, and poured again with the same result, high-volume foamy beer.

Then I disconnected the gas-in, de-pressurized the keg again--this time causing foam to shoot out of the relief valve. I can leave the gas-in off the keg, and hit the relief valve every few moments with a release of gas I would usually get while pressurizing at ~15psi . . . .

. . . so somehow, it is still producing gas. Fermentation is the obvious answer, but doesn't make sense--the beer finished at 1.011, has been in the keggerator for about 3 weeks now (40 degrees F), and I don't detect any off flavors or contamination (it's delicious).

Could the ginger be causing gas to come out of suspension somehow? I've used fresh ginger in the keg before and have never seen this happen . . . very odd.

LeglessDog said:

. . . so somehow, it is still producing gas.

Click to expand...

Sounds over carbonated... that is not the same as over pressurized.

If that is the case you can put the co2 on the liquid side and bubble co2 through to degas the ginger ale.

You may need to put a liquid (black) on your gas line to keep it from sticking on the post.

This technique worked for me after I froze a keg and then overcarbed.

I can't say for sure this it your issue but thought I suggest this.

This is the video that I saw that taught me this trick.

As I was saying the only issue I had was my grey gas ball valve gets stuck if I try to put it on the liquid side,
so to avoid this I put a liquid ball valve (black) on my CO2 line to degas.

The issue here is that the ginger ale is carbed at 20 psi. That's fine. But if you change the pressure to dispense to 1 psi, the liquid in the keg and the gas try to "equalize", and the c02 will come out of suspension to fill the headspace. That means a foamy pour.

To fix, just carb and dispense at the same pressure. I normally have soda at 25- 30 psi. So it takes like 25' of beerline (coiled up on the keg and ziptied) to dispense it correctly.