Help! My kegerator exploded!

We've had an exceptionally cold last couple of days out here in Colorado and unfortunately for me I don't think kegerators were meant to operate at below freezing temps. A couple days ago I kegged a chocolate espresso stout that I've been waiting over 2 months for. I turned my CO2 up to 20psi and shut off the valves to the other two kegs (only have one regulator for now and didn't want to over carb). The next day I came home from work to find my kegerator covered in sticky stout and the surrounding walls all splattered with delicious chocolatey nectar. Upon further investigation I found that the inside of the kegerator was completely clean and my brand new keg of stout was now bone dry along with my 5lb CO2 tank that was over half full.

I have drawn a few conclusions as to what might have happened and would love to hear other ideas to keep this from happening again. Keep in mind, ALL beer was dispensed from the keg and there was some definite force behind it.
1) The beer in the keg could have froze up a bit and expanded causing excess pressure to overpower the tap handle and spray beer everywhere. This doesn't explain the empty CO2 tank.
2) The CO2 tank could have expanded somehow and blew out the regulator causing a sudden rush of pressure into the keg and shooting beer everywhere.

That's really sad:smack:

Looks like your tap opened - once the beer emptied, the CO2 would follow.

I suspect a sneaky racoon, or cougar, or whatever kind of evil beer robbing creatures you have there.

Wow. That's tragic. My condolences.
My bed time stout will be quaffed in honor of a brew that died far too young

Was the stout faucet the one in the middle?

Cheers!

Hate to see that. I'll pour one out* for your lost stout.

*into a glass

A suggestion. When burst carbonating at higher pressures, keep the liquid lines off the keg until you dial back to serving pressure.

Any animals that could have opened the tap. 20 psi would make it come out with a lot of force!

LAHammer said:

That's really sad:smack:



Looks like your tap opened - once the beer emptied, the CO2 would follow.



I suspect a sneaky racoon, or cougar, or whatever kind of evil beer robbing creatures you have there.

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I would agree, but when I arrived and found the massacre the tap was closed.

day_trippr said:

Wow. That's tragic. My condolences.

My bed time stout will be quaffed in honor of a brew that died far too young



Was the stout faucet the one in the middle?



Cheers!

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Haha thanks sir! It was the far left tap, I had carbonated water in there up until this point with no issues ever.

kh54s10 said:

A suggestion. When burst carbonating at higher pressures, keep the liquid lines off the keg until you dial back to serving pressure.

Any animals that could have opened the tap. 20 psi would make it come out with a lot of force!

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I would normally keep the liquid line off, but the "out" post on this keg wouldn't close completely and had a slight leak. I figured if I just connected the liquid line it'd be no different than regular serving.

Is it wrong to think the tank malfunctioned due to the cold temps?

Maybe freezing beer inside the tap cracked something or moved something in side the tap just enough for everything to pour out.

You have forward seal faucets, which makes it a bigger mystery as I believe the pressure helps keep them closed.

Did ya piss off the misses?

dnslater said:

You have forward seal faucets, which makes it a bigger mystery as I believe the pressure helps keep them closed.

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I'm going to look into this as soon as I get back home later tonight. Hmm

BadBeagleBrew said:

Did ya piss off the misses?

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I have no misses. It's my house, my garage, and my problem. I've got a lotta bummed out friends that were excited to try it though. Fortunately I've got another 5 gallons I can keg.

I have no misses. It's my house, my garage, and my problem. I've got a lotta bummed out friends that were excited to try it though. Fortunately I've got another 5 gallons I can keg.[/QUOTE]



You need an occasional one to clean up such messes for you.........:cross:

Sorry for your loss.

I have to guess the tap had a malfunction. I'd try a keg of water on it to see what happens.

I'm down south of Highlands Ranch and keep my kegerator in the garage and haven't had an issue in the 2+ years I've had it.

mhurst111 said:

Sorry for your loss.

I have to guess the tap had a malfunction. I'd try a keg of water on it to see what happens.

I'm down south of Highlands Ranch and keep my kegerator in the garage and haven't had an issue in the 2+ years I've had it.

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Good to know. I actually had carbonated some water in a keg that was on the line up until this incident. No issues other than the water kinda freezing up once due to the freezer turned down too low once. I'm thinking you've got a good idea to do another water test run before dumping the rest of my precious stout!

I had something similar happen once with an IPA. One of the keg fittings was leaky and the entire batch leaked out into my chest freezer. I think I have an IPA curse - every time I brew one something goes horribly wrong.

erock2112 said:

I had something similar happen once with an IPA. One of the keg fittings was leaky and the entire batch leaked out into my chest freezer. I think I have an IPA curse - every time I brew one something goes horribly wrong.

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I wonder how/why a loose post would effect anything?

HiImBrian said:

I wonder how/why a loose post would effect anything?

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Pretty sure it was a leaky poppet on the liquid side. The keg was hooked up to gas but not to a tap, so it was under enough pressure to "serve" itself all over the inside of the keezer.

erock2112 said:

Pretty sure it was a leaky poppet on the liquid side. The keg was hooked up to gas but not to a tap, so it was under enough pressure to "serve" itself all over the inside of the keezer.

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Ahhh! haha yea that'll do it! I noticed mine was a tad leaky so I hooked up the liquid side just for that reason.

Sorry for your loss. I would think about having a serious talk with those snowboards though. Or perhaps check your local FedEx driver to see if he smells like a stout.

I once hit the ceiling with a gush of Guinness clone. I was curious what would happen if I tapped the liquid side poppet with a screwdriver.

I'm going with the infamous Perlick leak. Sometimes the old ones (525 series) just don't want to completely shut off. That's why there is now the 630 series. I've been lucky to catch mine in the act before they had a chance to empty a keg. I can now tell at a glance whether I'll have an issue after I close it. If you try to close it harder, it will only leak more. A nice, quick "flip" to close seems to work best.

I use a temperature controller with a mini light bulb paint can heater to prevent freezing on any outdoor and garage fermenters and kegerators.

Sorry for your loss

BuffaloJohn said:

Sorry for your loss. I would think about having a serious talk with those snowboards though. Or perhaps check your local FedEx driver to see if he smells like a stout.

I once hit the ceiling with a gush of Guinness clone. I was curious what would happen if I tapped the liquid side poppet with a screwdriver.

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I accidentally did a similar thing without thinkin about it. I noticed the post was leaking so I tried to push down the pin to reset it and got a blast of stout in my face lol.

gwren said:

I'm going with the infamous Perlick leak. Sometimes the old ones (525 series) just don't want to completely shut off. That's why there is now the 630 series. I've been lucky to catch mine in the act before they had a chance to empty a keg. I can now tell at a glance whether I'll have an issue after I close it. If you try to close it harder, it will only leak more. A nice, quick "flip" to close seems to work best.

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DING DING DING!!!
We have a winner. I finally got around to troubleshooting a bit and found that when I hooked it up again (starsan this time) it leaked continuously and the handle wouldn't stop it no matter what I did. I took the tap apart and greased up the o ring a bit and it's working fine now. I'm a bit hesitant but will be keeping a close eye on it.

Do you recall ever reading about a "fix" for this infamous issue?