Noob kegging mistakes

I am a huge jackass. I'm embarrassed to tell this tale, but here goes.

The other day I kegged my second batch of homebrew. I put 30lbs of co2, shook, repeat, then let sit. Yesterday I figured I would give the beer a taste, so I pull the 30lb gas connect, fumble with hoses and such, then mistakenly hook up one of the 3 serving gas connects, which is at 12lbs, to the still very pressurized keg...on the beer post!! Since the 3 serving lines are connected to the regulator by means of a simple stainless cross (in an effort to save some $ over a manifold w/check valves), you can guess what happened next.

I caught it before it went too far, and pushed the beer back out by pulling the relief valves on the properly connected kegs, but still... what a noob. I hadn't even been drinking yet. *sigh*

Good thing you caught it before it ruined your regulator!

Sometimes I forget to vent the keg before setting on the gas in the kegerator, and I'm so thankful for my check valves!

Yes, check valves are a must, plus the size your hosing correct from the corny 1/4 to the 3/8 for your gas lines. Mine were only $9 at my local brew store, a cheap price for a piece of mind (I like to make careless mistakes).

Even if you don't want to drop the coin on a manifold with individual check valves have at least one check valve at the regulator. Then you only have to worry about accidentally "blending" you beer.

Glad you caught it before it became a real problem Can't help but think that this is yet another reason to just set the pressure and leave it for a week rather than trying to force carb at 30

yet another reason to just set the pressure and leave it for a week

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Indeed. Now that I have some stuff to drink, there's no hurry, and this will be my habit going forward. I do have check valves on my regulators, so there's some piece of mind at least. A proper manifold is in my immediate future though.

i did this same thing but it reached my regulator. i am brand new to kegging and didnt really think about it. i just followed the rules i had read and it never mentioned anything about this. so is my regulator ruined? this happened three days ago and it has been working fine since. have i messed everything up?

I have a regulator already messed up due to that, that I use for just force carbing. Strange the low pressure valve still works right but the high pressure is frozen. One of these days I might crack it open to see if I can fix it or just replace it but I'm cheap and lazy.
Glad to hear you did not really break anything. I remember testing to make sure the beer out fitting sealed right and forgot the keg was pressurized on a stout. My living room got a nice beer shower from the kitchen and my carpet still has some slight stains.

bakersbrew said:

i did this same thing but it reached my regulator. i am brand new to kegging and didnt really think about it. i just followed the rules i had read and it never mentioned anything about this. so is my regulator ruined? this happened three days ago and it has been working fine since. have i messed everything up?

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If it were me I think I'd unhook everything from the regulator, unhook the regulator from the tank, take the regulator apart and check it out. If liquid got inside it will eventually start to gum stuff up. Unless your regulator is very old you can probably get a repair kit similar to keg beer Regulators draft kegerator Regulator Repa .