Lost 5 gallons!!!

Learned my biggest lesson to date. First batch to keg and I did not hang the cobra tap. I'm guessing that it depressed when I threw it in the cooler and closed the lid. Came back from work today with my Corny floating in 5 gallons of homebrew. Keg was dry as a bone. Made me sick.

At least you remembered to take pictures.

That sucks man! Just curious, what is a cobra tap?

douglasbarbin said:

That sucks man! Just curious, what is a cobra tap?

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AKA picnic tap - a plastic tap for dispensing beer that is not mounted anywhere; it just hangs from the end of the liquid line.

douglasbarbin said:

That sucks man! Just curious, what is a cobra tap?

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The plastic picnic squeeze tap.

Got it. Never heard them called that before.

So....at least you know the seal on your fridge is good?

Yea. I never leave those things connected. They're flimsy as is. One time I did have a similar situation where the popit valve on the beer side had a slow leak. I was force carbing a fresh batch and wound up in the same situation as you, with the addition of an empty co2 tank.

At least it was in a chest freezer and not a dorm fridge. I've had about a gallon spill out of my under bar kegerator. I still don't know whether there is beer/crud/mold/nastiness under the bar. The next homeowner can figure that one out.

the. worst.

Feel for you been there. Now try cleaning that out of a 20 cu chest that you can't flip PITA

Bummer. Been there, done that. I lost 5gals of a Bass clone when the tap fell off of the keg and torqued the hose enough to loosen the threaded fitting on the disconnect (was only hand tightened). I managed to salvage a pint of it though.

Your first picture, to me, is like a picture of someone with a nasty cut on their finger. But that second picture....that's a bad accident between a motorcyclist and a semi-truck at 100 MPH.
I don't think you can post pictures of gore here, it makes people, like me, uneasy...

That truly sucks man. I have been dreading the day (knock, no, pound on wood), that this happen to me. I have a full size refrigerator with 4 kegs, I can't imagine 20 gallons on my living room floor.