Kegging newbie facepalm - fail - woe - learning curve

[bannerj]

I think I only post my failures on here. Misery loves company, yeah? I'm making some great beers. I promise. We just learn from our failures. Or we should. I should.

The LESSON TO LEARN: Brewing is all about checking and double checking everything. You can relax and have a homebrew if you are able to "give yourself" to the regular practice of checking and double checking...or triple checking even. How to do this without developig analysis paralysis?

I'm just not a detail person in general but I learned to be one with writing (I teach college first year comp) and with studio recording. NOW to get this down with brewing. Ugg.

CASE IN POINT: I bought/installed 2 tap draft system from kegconnections. I plugged everything in/together and just assumed all their pre-assembled connections wouldn't LEAK.

ASS-UMING.

Yep.

 

[atom]

so you lost beer, gas or both?

my condolences.

 

[bannerj]

Just gas.

Thanks for feeling my pain.

 

[ronnyg0891]

I made the same mistake BUT I also lost about 1/2 to 3/4 of my first brew. Then due to all of my problems I left the lid on the keg partially open (not sure why I opened it) and it got contaminated. I've learned alot from that first keg!

 

[bannerj]

OKAY....so I just realized what you are asking. The leak must be on the IN gas side! Deduction.

 

[D-Train]

I changed the beer lines 1/4 of the way into my first keg because 5' lines = foam. On the new lines I overtightened the nut, ruining the gasket, and subsequently lost a gallon or two in between pints. A lot of it went under my furnace destined to never be fully cleaned up because you don't really move a furnace after it's in place. 3rd keg was an altbier which I accidentally froze. That would explain why the first several pours were like drinking a porter. I didn't even realize it froze until it lost carbonation and wouldn't carb up because of the ice layer on top. After I thawed it each subsequent poor became more and more watery until it was finally like drinking a BMC. Now I'm on keg #9 and overcarbonated a keg for the first time. What a PITA. As you can tell I have a few things to learn.

 

[Zepth]

Guess I lucked out on things. All my brewing incidents have been on the way to their final packaging be it bottles or kegs. After that point they've been behaving quite nicely. Learning curve on everything, perhaps my day is coming. That isn't to say that I went my whole life without wearing strike water...

 

[bannerj]

I changed the beer lines 1/4 of the way into my first keg because 5' lines = foam. On the new lines I overtightened the nut, ruining the gasket, and subsequently lost a gallon or two in between pints. A lot of it went under my furnace destined to never be fully cleaned up because you don't really move a furnace after it's in place. 3rd keg was an altbier which I accidentally froze. That would explain why the first several pours were like drinking a porter. I didn't even realize it froze until it lost carbonation and wouldn't carb up because of the ice layer on top. After I thawed it each subsequent poor became more and more watery until it was finally like drinking a BMC. Now I'm on keg #9 and overcarbonated a keg for the first time. What a PITA. As you can tell I have a few things to learn.

Awesome. Love this. I really do wonder if some people don't want to reply to my questions in other subforums because I sound like a bumbling idiot who is beyond help. There is that 'how many hydrometers have you broken" thread. But the detail of crash and burn here...YES! Why the hell do we keep throwing money at beer making?

I LOVE BEER.

Is BMC Bud Miller Coors?