Force carbing mishap

[jkeb74]

In the midst of my brew finishing force carbing I went to turn the pressure down to the keg. When I did this beer was sucked back through my co2 lines in to my secondary. This particular keg has a nipple that extends about 2 inches down, which was deep enough to reach the beer in the keg ( The beer made it in and started coming out of the housing under the turn dial (I have the Mircomatic premium secondary)

Just wondering how I should go about cleaning the regulator housing? Not sure if it's able to be taken apart, or if anyone else has ever ran in to this at all.

Thanks

 

[djsethall]

If you feel comfortable, I so go for it. I have rebuilt a few regulators in my days. Its not that hard, usually a standard and philips screwdriver is all that is necessary. Or.... You could just do the same thing you did with the beer, but use water instead to give it a rinse out.

 

[cwi]

You need to clean your reg before the beer gets too gummy, or something corrodes or oxidizes, which it may already have done. Backflushing again with water may work, but prob better to take it apart. Just a light rinse, to avoid having to relube, probably all that is needed.

To prevent if from happening again, get at least one check valve. One per keg is better to prevent cross keg pressure equalization when a different temp or pressure keg is added to the circuit. They can be bought as check valve only, check valve ball valve combos, as well as pre-installed in an x-way manifold. They aren't cheap from the LHBS (~$7 each), and a quick search a while back didn't find anyplace that had suitable models any cheaper even though this is a sub $1 manufacturing cost part.

 

[integrator]

Check Valves. I have one on every secondary. I'll put them on manifolds in the future. Put them everywhere....