Keg carbed but not serving

[eatmorefrogs]

I have a keg that force carbed just fine (30 PSI @ 40F for about 42 hours) but now won't serve. If I leave the keg alone for a while I can get a trickle out of the faucet enough to know that it's carbed fine. After that initial ounce of beer, nothing else will come out, no matter what PSI I set that keg to. I have the luxury of being able to swap out gas and beer lines with known working kegs to rule out all my lines.

I've checked my seals with window cleaner and have no bubbles. I've reseated them as well and checked again, no bubbles. I've left the CO2 hooked up and it doesn't drain the tank. My o-rings all appear in like-new condition.

To see if it was a poppet issue, I swapped the heads on the lines and tried to push CO2 into the beer dip tube. Left it for a bit, came back, and no hiss on the release valve.

The only thing I can think of is some wearable part that has gone bad and I can't figure out what. Do those little pressure release valves go bad? It doesn't bubble when I spray it with cleaner. Am I missing something obvious? Do poppet springs stop springing? (it seems to compress just fine when I push on it)

(I've ruled out the bottom of the keg freezing and I've angled the keg such that there's *no way* sediment is covering the tube.)

 

[mikescooling]

Drop the pressure on the keg and pull the dip tube, that is the only thing I can think of.

 

[eatmorefrogs]

Drop the pressure on the keg and pull the dip tube, that is the only thing I can think of.

You mean run it without a CO2 dip tube?

 

[OzMobrew]

To see if it was a poppet issue, I swapped the heads on the lines and tried to push CO2 into the beer dip tube. Left it for a bit, came back, and no hiss on the release valve.


Did you hear the CO2 bubbling in the beer when you switched the fittings? It sounds like it may be your CO2 fitting. Can you connect it to another keg to see if gas is flowing from it?

 

[day_trippr]

He means release the pressure on the keg, pull the long dip tube, and check for obstruction. I'd advise the same.

If by some chance the root cause isn't debris...the disconnects have spring-loaded plastic plungers that work in opposition to the spring-loaded metal poppets in the posts. Both the plunger and the poppet have to be displaced from their resting positions to get beer to flow through the coupling. At their extremes, if the plunger spring is weak it can't move the poppet; if the post poppet spring is weak it can't move the plunger...

Cheers!

 

[eatmorefrogs]

Thank you for the quick responses everyone, I appreciate it and all of it helped troubleshoot.

I ended up swapping out the gas poppet from a known working keg. After swapping, the keg I've been working on works fine and the keg that was pouring now isn't. After swapping hoses around it appears to be isolated to just that poppet, which I'll have to replace, I suppose.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[glick]

Now that you've figured it out...why are you checking for for CO2 leaks with window cleaner?

 

[eatmorefrogs]

Now that you've figured it out...why are you checking for for CO2 leaks with window cleaner?

When you spray it on the joints if they're leaking it makes soap bubbles.

 

[jekeane]

I think he was more questioning the window cleaner chemical part heh... Star San in a spray bottle or a little soap and water work for leak checking.