Kegging Problem: My tap will not dispense.

Hello All,
I have an issue, and since I am pretty new to kegging, I cannot troubleshoot this myself.
I have a two tap kegerator that I built. I have a three guage, taprite regulator, 5lbs of co2, and perlick faucets. I have been using this system for a few months now with no issues. Until now.
One of my primaries, filled with hefe, is almost ready to keg, but I have only two kegs, so I will need to keg it soon. I have been drinking from KegA for sometime and KegB is still quite full. So I disconnect KegA to try to determine how much is in it (how drunk I will need to get this weekend ;-) ).
My idea was to weigh the partially filled KegA and subtract the weight of an empty keg to determine the remainder. Easy enough. I weigh it. Get the an approx. amount of ~.75 gallons. No biggie.

Here's the problem. I reattach the keg. And go to the tap to reward myself for a job well done. Pull the tap...and a very weak stream flows out and then stops. I try it again...nothing. I check all connections. No joy.
I take KegA's beer out (black) connector connect to KegB and the tap flows fine. So I take KegB's beer out connector to KegA and nothing. So my thinking is that there is something blocking the tube in KegA or there is something wrong with the
actual beer out post of KegA.

For the record I have disconnected the co2 from KegA. Released the co2 from the actual release valve and pumped in more co2 just to confirm that the co2 is flowing freely as well.

Has anyone ran into this? Any suggestions.

I literally just started kegging this weekend but it sounds like your diptube is blocked. I would disconnect the CO2, bleed most of the pressure in the keg via the release valve, then reattached the CO2 on the outlet side of the keg. Slowly apply pressure to try to clear the tube of whatever is blocking it. Once you've done that, hook everything back up the correct way (no need to bleed the pressure again) and give it a go. You may have some sediment in the keg that came loose when you weighed it and blocked the outlet tube. Good luck

anokiernan,

Thanks for the reply, and it was kinda what I was thinking (clog). Unfortunately, I could not unclog the output. I opened the keg and poured most of the carbed beer into growlers for this weekend. I disassembled the keg to find much "junk" within the actual outlet post, beside the poppet. I am assuming that this is the problem. This weekend I also plan to fill that same keg with some hefe. I will let you know if my cleaning of outlet solves the problem. I am guessing it will.

One possible solution to this would be attaching a co2 line to a black beer connector and actually feeding the co2 through the beer output....possible?

ziggy3984 said:

anokiernan,

Thanks for the reply, and it was kinda what I was thinking (clog). Unfortunately, I could not unclog the output. I opened the keg and poured most of the carbed beer into growlers for this weekend. I disassembled the keg to find much "junk" within the actual outlet post, beside the poppet. I am assuming that this is the problem. This weekend I also plan to fill that same keg with some hefe. I will let you know if my cleaning of outlet solves the problem. I am guessing it will.

One possible solution to this would be attaching a co2 line to a black beer connector and actually feeding the co2 through the beer output....possible?

Click to expand...

Next time, instead of pouring the beer out, just release the pressure and then take off the post. Pull out the diptube, too. Clean it out, sanitize it, and put it back. No need to dump the beer out at all.

You could push some c02 through the "out", but it doesn't work that well if hops debris is plugging the poppet. It works sometimes to clear the diptube, though.

Yooper said:

Next time, instead of pouring the beer out, just release the pressure and then take off the post. Pull out the diptube, too. Clean it out, sanitize it, and put it back.

Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah. I know the problem now, but last night I was unsure if that was definitely the problem. If this does ever happen again, this will be the first thing that I will do.