Beer stuck in keg!

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jim_reaper1066

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So in an attempt to hurry up the process, I racked my DFH60 clone to a keg and dry hopped in the keg. No hopbag, just loose pellets. After letting it sit for a while I hooked it up to the lines, and nothing would pour out! No foam, no little spurts of beer. The gas goes in both the gas in and liquid out posts just fine, but I cannot get any beer out. I think the hop pellets have clogged up the dip tube, has anyone else ever had this trouble? Since I cant jump my beer from one keg to another, I think racking it via autosiphon to a new keg is my only option. Any other suggestions?
 
If you dry hopped with loose pellets in the keg, racking to another keg is probably your only option.
 
Surescreen I believe its called can be put over the dip tube to block the hops and keep the beer flowing. This is just for future use of course.
 
Surescreen I believe its called can be put over the dip tube to block the hops and keep the beer flowing. This is just for future use of course.

With all these "clogged keg" posts of late I was wondering if someone made such a device - thanks for the tip!

But, according to the Northern Brewer product page for Surescreen, they tend to get clogged by pellet hops. Too bad...

Cheers!
 
I think pellet hops will clog just about anything...they turn into a nice hop-like paste.
 
best way to jump your beer (or consume) would be to purge keg of gas, take off the post, and remove the dip tube...clean, put on a scrubby or sure screen (should at least try), and see if you can get it to flow.

if all else fails, THEN try to autosiphon..otherwise, you chance a lot of foam, lost co2, and oxidation.

good luck! :mug:
 
Same thing happened to me, except I had a cut off dip tube so i was expecting it to be fine. Unfortunately it was a Pliny clone. There was so much dry hops it still ended up plugging the dip tube. I ended up dumping the beer because I just didn't have time to deal with it and it sat on the hops for months. I didn't taste very good after that.
 
I had almost the exact same post a week or two ago before my sister in law and her husband came out to the house. It always seems like houseguests get the most interesting in beer since a keg is always almost empty (sediment laden), or almost full (clogged in this case).

I got no more than a few drips with every "pour" even at 25psi. I turned off the gas/disconnected it, bled all the pressure and kept the pressure relief valve pulled open so that even off gassing beer wouldn't cause any pressure build-up, removed the liquid quick-connect and carefully removed the beer-out post. This can be a mess, especially with a full keg that has any kind of carbonation, so have a few towels handy or remove the whole keg and put it into a place that can handle spilling beer (concrete floor, bath tub, a giant pitcher so you don't waste any beer, etc.).

With the liquid quick connect off, you may still not see any beer coming out the dip tube. In my case, I disassembled my beer-out quick-connect and removed the spring/pin so that it is "open." If doing this method, you also will need to remove the poppet valve from the beer-out post on the keg since the poppet needs the spring-loaded pin in the quick-connect to open. It should be noted that in doing this, while you make the beer flow easier out of the keg, the only thing stopping pressurized beer from escaping from the keg is your picnic tap or faucet in your kegerator.

Anyway, I digress. When initially removing the beer-post on the keg, if beer doesn't come out of the dip tube, remove the dip tube. Be sure to keep the pressure-relief valve open, so the beer doesn't surprise you when you get the tube out! Once you get the dip tube out, quickly take it to the sink and run something through it to dislodge the clog. Mine was so thoroughly clogged that I needed to use my wire tubing brush that is about 3' long and force it through the tube. The hops that came out looked almost identical to pellet hops since they were compressed into 1/4" round shapes, about 2' long. HA! I re-sanitized my dip tube for about 3 minutes in iodophor, and put it back into the keg. I assembled everything without the beer-out poppet and the spring-loaded pin in the quick-connect in hopes that hops material wouldn't clog things up.

There was no clog after this, and the first half dozen pours were thick with hops floaties. I'm thinking about doing it all again now that the hops have been reduced, and reassembling everything with a screen on the bottom of the dip tube in addition to the poppets and such.

It turns out that keeping all hops material out of the keg is key, unless you are hopping in a bag or something in your keg. Good luck!
 
If the beer is already fully carbonated, can it still be racked without affecting the flavor/characteristics of the beer? Will it foam when racked too?
 
I want to know that also. I just put an out on my CO2 line and blew the crap back into the keg. Beer flows fine but I am contemplating a transfer in-line to another keg (out to out). Quick fix worked for beer tonight but what is long term sol'n? Probably not dry hopping in the keg for two weeks didn't help with other sediment compounding clogging issues with a full length dip tube. Thanks.
 
If you want to avoid too much sediment in the keg, you need to wait another week before kegging and/or secondary for a week. Also dry-hopping in the keg without a bag is a bad idea.

If the beer is already carb'd, I'd degas it and let it go flat, then rack it to another keg.
 
There have been many clogged keg threads recently. If you're going to dry-hop in the keg, I would suggest leaf hops in a bag with a weight. I tie dental floss around the bag and tie the other end to the keg handle so the bag is suspended an inch or two from the bottom. This prevents the bag from being sucked into the dip tube and clogging. The bag prevents any small particle from getting out. Many people like to dry hop with pellets so I'm not saying that isn't good, but it doesn't seem to work well in kegs and I don't think it is worth the risk.

I know this post doesn't help you right now, but I think you have many good suggestions above to try. My comment is more for future reference/future batches...
 
i always dry hop in a secondary with a tea ball like screen, and if i use pellets- even with that i still have little floaties when i rack to a keg. not so many that they clog my diptube, but enough that i always dispense through a randall and kind of use the leaf hops as a filter. it seems like nothing screens out dissolved pellets...
 
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