Picnic Tap Help

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
jdoiv

jdoiv

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
1,151
Reaction score
9
Location
Nashville, TN
Ok,
I've got a ghetto keg setup with two kegs and CO2 can in my fridge with picnic taps attached. I've been running this setup for several months now with nary a problem. I finally emptied the CO2 and had it refilled today. Hooked it up and now notice that after pouring a pint that l am somehow getting air into the system. I'll notice bubbles floating up the beer line toward the tap and end up with either CO2 or air in the beer line (liquid side). So when I pour a pint it will sputter and foam like mad. Do I have a CO2 leak somewhere? I tried attaching a different picnic tap and it does the same thing. I pulled off the plunger and reattached it. I added keg lube to the post. Why is this happening? I sprayed the top of the keg with sanitizer solution looking for leaks and didn't see anything. I get the feeling that the problem may be with the picnic tap line but am not sure.
 
jdoiv said:
...I'll notice bubbles floating up the beer line toward the tap and end up with either CO2 or air in the beer line (liquid side). So when I pour a pint it will sputter and foam like mad...
Click to expand...
Ignoring everything else you mentioned, this sounds like symptoms of too much pressure, or a beer that is way overcarb'd.

Do you have more than one beer hooked up?

Is it possible that your old CO2 was very low and the new one...being freshly charged just has too much pressure.

What PSI is your regulator set at?
 
Yeah, I sort of thought that at first when it was coming out foamy.

I had the pressure at 12 psi with 7 ft. of 3/16th inch line. It's an APA. There are 2 kegs hooked up, the other being Apfelwein. The beer actually tastes a little flat. I had naturally carbed the keg and kept it at about 65 degrees for three weeks before hooking it up. It was flat to start with, but I figured I had kept it too cool and it hadn't really gotten carbed. I turned the pressure up to 20 and tried force carbing it for a couple of days. I turned the pressure down yesterday and noticed the gauge was suddenly close to empty. The tank was filled a good 6 or 8 kegs ago so I figured it was about time for the refill and it had finally run out. I tried turning the pressure down to 8 psi, but it still seems to slowly leak out of the line.

Other thing to note, after filling up my last pint last night the fridge door didn't get all the way closed (the beer line blocked it). I didn't notice till this morning so things had warmed up. Maybe I just need to let it sit on the gas for another day and it will settle down.
 
have you tried completely draining the lines, carbing the beer to the right CO2 volume, and tried again?
I just wonder if in the time you had it filled, you just lost enough pressure that CO2 fell out of solution, especially since you think its a little flat tasting right now.
 
jdoiv said:
Yeah, I sort of thought that at first when it was coming out foamy.

I had the pressure at 12 psi with 7 ft. of 3/16th inch line. It's an APA. There are 2 kegs hooked up, the other being Apfelwein. The beer actually tastes a little flat. I had naturally carbed the keg and kept it at about 65 degrees for three weeks before hooking it up. It was flat to start with, but I figured I had kept it too cool and it hadn't really gotten carbed. I turned the pressure up to 20 and tried force carbing it for a couple of days. I turned the pressure down yesterday and noticed the gauge was suddenly close to empty. The tank was filled a good 6 or 8 kegs ago so I figured it was about time for the refill and it had finally run out. I tried turning the pressure down to 8 psi, but it still seems to slowly leak out of the line.

Other thing to note, after filling up my last pint last night the fridge door didn't get all the way closed (the beer line blocked it). I didn't notice till this morning so things had warmed up. Maybe I just need to let it sit on the gas for another day and it will settle down.
Click to expand...
65 degrees is too cool to prime a keg in 3 weeks so it was definitely under carb'd.

Could be that your tank dried up sooner than you think and that 20 pounds for a couple days did little. A beer that is poured with too much pressure will flatten out very quickly, due to the "violence" of the pour.

Get everything rechilled and set to 10PSI and retest things tomorrow. Release anby excess pressure from the keg first and then pour.
 

Similar threads

Barleycapable
Picnic Tap 2.1 trouble
2
Replies
69
Views
5K
tracer bullet
tracer bullet
P
Kegerator / regulator issue? - beer not flowing properly and I'm out of ideas
Replies
30
Views
1K
day_trippr
day_trippr
hilljack13
DIY hoses & taps
Replies
20
Views
1K
jentaro
J
Nagorg
Normal "Leak-Down" During Carbonation... Or leak?
Replies
32
Views
916
Nagorg
Nagorg
brew_mama
Out of ideas - flat beer from keg
Replies
3
Views
718
day_trippr
day_trippr

Latest posts

Back
Top