No beer coming out!

Hey guys, first time kegging here. I bought 3 cornys, split up my 15 gal. batch between them, and conditioned with ~.5 cup corn sugar per keg, as I didn't yet have the rest of the equipment and was more than ready to get out of primary. Also dry hopped each keg with flowers and pellets.

Got the kegerator used (Danby) and it was set up for Sanke style kegs. So the nice guy who filled my CO2 tank got me the quick releases and connected everything up for me. I cooled the keg, hooked up the gas (at ~10 psi) and beer lines, went to pull a keg... and I got nothing. Maybe a couple drops of yeast, but certainly no beer and nothing flowing.

I looked around on these forums and didn't find anything helpful yet. I'm not sure if this is a clog from the hops, or a leak from the connections, or something else. The release on the keg shows that there is pressure in the keg and I don't hear any hissing, so I am assuming it must be on the beer line side of things but I cannot figure it out! I have pushed the releases down all the way. Could it be a problem with the beer side, but inside the keg rather than on the releases? Any ideas?

Try bumping up the pressure to 30psi and give it a go. Might just have a clogged dip tube.

your saying nothing is coming out of your cornys right?

did you put the dry hops in a bag inside the keg? or just toss em in.

i would chk, and ive done this myself did you put the OUT tube on the IN side of the keg?

Tried 30 psi and still nothing comes out (yes, nothing from the cornys - the beer tube is mostly empty).

I just tossed the hops in, not in a bag. I assume you're saying that putting them in a bag will keep them from clogging things up?

And yes, I double checked my in (from regulator) and out (to tap).

Any other ideas? Is it likely a clog from hops and yeast, or would trying 30 psi be enough to unclog anything in the way?

+1 on the hops clogged the tube. No mater what people on here say never dry hop in the keg...its always a mess


Unhook the gas, release the current pressure and take apart the OUT side and clear out the tube. your first few beers will have a ton of hop particulate in them.

To add to the question here if I may.....

What about adding a screen of sorts to the dip tube to prevent further clogging, which I would think would keep happening?

hmm..depressurize the keg, and chk the valve at the tap for clogs/move to the out/side popit valve, remove it and chk for clogs, remove your dip tube blow through it...u didnt frezze the beer by chance..sounds dumb but if the fridge is to cold it can happen.. and it makes a big beer slushy and stops flow..or maybe someone drank it all..jk...

cleaned out the dip tube which was totally clogged with what i am assuming were the pellet hops. put the tube back in, tried to pull another beer and it got clogged again. how can i save the beer? should i just go buy another keg, rack into it and leave the hops behind, then clean that keg and rack into it? i am guessing that is the easiest answer considering i have 3 kegs that'll all have the same problem.

phuzle said:

cleaned out the dip tube which was totally clogged with what i am assuming were the pellet hops. put the tube back in, tried to pull another beer and it got clogged again. how can i save the beer? should i just go buy another keg, rack into it and leave the hops behind, then clean that keg and rack into it? i am guessing that is the easiest answer considering i have 3 kegs that'll all have the same problem.

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Yeah, if you've got loose particles in there, it'll clog right up again. You can gently rack out of the keg, and then rack back I guess. Don't splash and you should be ok. You could always push it back into the keg with co2, but since it's already being racked once it's probably not worth monkeying around with and buying extra beer line and QDs.

If you don't want to buy another keg, you could rack into your bottling bucket, let it settle a bit, and then transfer from the bottling bucket into the new keg. That might also give you a chance to clear up any crud you've got floating in there. If the same stuff transfers over, it'll just clog up again.

I do dryhop in the keg, but if I do, I always use one of these:

It's a big tea ball strainer.

Yoop, how do you attach it to the dip tube?

Back on topic, I'd suggest dry hoping with whole leaf and putting them in a hop bag next time.

homebeerbrewer said:

Yoop, how do you attach it to the dip tube?

Back on topic, I'd suggest dry hoping with whole leaf and putting them in a hop bag next time.

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If I understand your post, then you are misunderstanding her method. The hops go in the tea ball and float around, not free. The tea ball confines the hop material. I assume she uses leaf hops and not pellets with that thing. Nothing attaches to the dip tube.

jgbrown said:

I assume she uses leaf hops and not pellets with that thing. Nothing attaches to the dip tube.

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I think she would use pellet hops with a tea ball, that's what I use. You couldn't get an ounce of leaf hops in a tea ball.

jgbrown said:

If I understand your post, then you are misunderstanding her method. The hops go in the tea ball and float around, not free. The tea ball confines the hop material. I assume she uses leaf hops and not pellets with that thing. Nothing attaches to the dip tube.

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Ok, that makes sense.

I use leaf hops with the tea ball strainer. I have more than one, so I don't overpack the hops.

For pellet hops, I use a tightly woven hops bag.

I don't attach mine to the diptube, but I know that Biermuncher has used plastic "zip ties" to attach his to the diptube, and someone else (was it Edwort?) use fishing line to attach his to the lid so he could pull them out when he wanted. I just put mine in and leave them. A hoppy beer doesn't last long enough at my house to get "grassy" flavors.