Clogged Cornelius Keg

I recently had a problem with my cornelius keg. A few days after putting my IPA in my keg, it got clogged. I looked on the internet but found nothing that could help me so I decided to to post a quick solution if it happens to someone.

Actually, it turned out that some hops had clogged the sucking pipe in my keg. What you have to do is to unscrew the fitting on the keg. It can be done with a 7/8" socket. This will remove the fitting as well as the check valve. Make sure nothing clogged any of it. After that, you can remove the pipe simply by pulling it. The clog is probably in the tube, then just blow in it to remove the clog. If it doesn't work, you can try with a air blower gun, that should do it.

If by any chance the clog isn't it the pipe nor the fitting, it might be the tap, but I would bet that the clog is in the pipe!

** Btw, this solution implies that you have to remove the beer from the keg for a few minutes...

Hope that helped someone!

There is no need to remove the beer from the keg.

Put the gas on the dip tube. 8 pounds of pressure blowing against the clog and no beer removal necessary.

If putting high gas pressure on the beer-out post doesn't clear the hop clog you might need to disassemble the post and/or dip tube. I've had that happen with a IIPA or two. Be sure to vent the pressure from the keg with the pressure relief valve before unscrewing anything on a pressurized keg. Be sure to re-sanitize any disassembled keg parts as necessary.

The cure for this issue is to make sure hop debris never make it into the keg in the first place. If you rubberband a 1 inch square of pantyhose over your racking cane before you sanitize everything on kegging day you'll keep all the material out of your keg and you'll be worry-free.

You guys are right for beer removal, no need to do so. Although putting high pressure won't do any good. It will only push the hops further in the dip tube and will eventually stop at the check valve.

Unless you put the gaz on the other fitting. But I noticed that the fittings are harder to remove if they are on the wrong plug. I already broke a fitting like that.

Moose1231 said:

You guys are right for beer removal, no need to do so. Although putting high pressure won't do any good. It will only push the hops further in the dip tube and will eventually stop at the check valve.

Click to expand...

I agree that pushing the hops down the tube would just compact them. But what are you talking about "check valve"? I'm missing something here.