Tap won't dispense beer

[ILMSTMF]

SOLVED! The poppets / springs in the keg post and QD were blocking flow of truby beer. Solution - remove gas QD. Open PRV and let remain open. Remove spring and poppet from liquid QD. Remove spring and poppet from keg liquid post.

For others experiencing the same issue, read on. Other possible problems could have been frozen liquid in the line, clogged faucet, clogged liquid dip tube.

******* Original post below ******

I cannot get the beer to get through the tap line. Psi at 12.
EDIT - sorry, yes, I have verified that the gas QD is working. Disconnected it, pressed poppet, CO2 flows out. After pulling PRV to release all pressure, reattach gas QD and the CO2 tank is audibly sending gas to the keg.

• I have cleaned the post, dip tube, and QD. Only the QD was cleaned once, the others cleaned TWICE. Yes, I sanitized before reattaching to keg. Ran water through the dip tube and it was flowing out into the sink with seemingly no obstacles.

• I know the tap is working right because it trickles out the sanitizer that is still in the line.

• When cleaning the parts, nothing appeared excessively clogged. A little bit of gray sludge was in the post both times. QD was clear.

I have the impression that there is too much trub sitting in the keg. The dip tube is probably sitting right in it. Whether or not I'm right, what should I do to troubleshoot / fix?

A) reduce pressure in keg, try to tap
B) increase pressure in keg, try to tap
C) attach liquid QD to gas line, connect to liquid post in attempt to blow some of the trub out of the way.
D) siphon this beer into another keg, this time making sure not to pick up the trub.
E) something else.

Thank you very much!

 

[LLBeanJ]

Assuming gas is flowing into the keg...

If you suspect the post/poppet is fouling with trub, I would depressurize the keg, disassemble the liquid post and remove the poppet. Reassemble the post on the keg without the poppet, re-pressurize and see if you get flow thru the tap. If so, you may need to run it this way for a short time until the trub in the bottom of the keg either settles or is discharged thru the tap.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Assuming gas is flowing into the keg...

If you suspect the post/poppet is fouling with trub, I would depressurize the keg, disassemble the liquid post and remove the poppet. Reassemble the post on the keg without the poppet, re-pressurize and see if you get flow thru the tap. If so, you may need to run it this way for a short time until the trub in the bottom of the keg either settles or is discharged thru the tap.

Yes, gas is working. Edited OP, thank you.

OK, I hadn't thought to try that (remove poppet from liquid post). Sorry, I'm still a n00b - will that promote a poor seal between the QD and post versus if the poppet was still in the post? Clearly you wouldn't recommend trying this if it weren't safe. Though I am curious about the seal between the QD and post... Anyway, I think I'll give that a try tonight, thank you!

 

[MrPowers]

I have to do that with IPA's occasionally. Remove the poppet from the QD and the keg liquid post (MAKE SURE TO RELIEVE THE PRESSURE ON THE KEG FIRST), then reattach, repressurize, and it should work fine as long as the seals on your keg posts and QD's are good. I would just leave it that way for the duration of the keg.

 

[vgmohag]

I had a similar issue recently. Come to find out my beer line was laying against some ice forming in the back of the kegerator and had frozen. warmed it with my hand a bit and beer started flowing again.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Removing the poppet would work. I've previously left the whole post off and let beer spill out the dip tube. The QD may add too much resistance even then, but this method seems cleaner and worth a shot.

Or it could be frozen.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Man, am I glad I asked here!

If it's OK, I'll start by removing only the poppet from the keg post. If that doesn't do it, I'll remove poppet from QD too.

And yes, being as how I only recently set the keezer up, I've been moving the tap lines around. I have settled on coiling them into the open side by the compressor hump. I've read others state that it gets super cold over there. I will check lines to ensure nothing has frozen.

Thanks all!

 

[BrewInspector]

I'll second the freezing line possibility. I had this happen several times in the past. Everything seems to be working properly but little or no beer comes from the tap.

Hard to tell visually if a line has a small frozen section. Warming the line was always the solution made easier if you are able to locate the specific location of the blockage.

This has become my first check when the taps fail to flow as they should.

 

[ILMSTMF]

If I went through the effort of taking apart the post, cleaning it, and the dip tube...twice...and there's just some little frozen bit in the line...

Lessons are being learned over here. Will report back tonight, thanks!

 

[ILMSTMF]

Removing the poppet would work. I've previously left the whole post off and let beer spill out the dip tube. The QD may add too much resistance even then, but this method seems cleaner and worth a shot.

Or it could be frozen.

Hey dudes.

Relieved pressure. Removed liquid QD. Took post off. Minimal spilling out of dip tube. The poppet and spring from post fell into the keezer. Good thing I didn't need them! Replaced, put gas on and... very little coming out of tap.

Ok. Repeated above until removing liquid QD resulted in beer gushing out of the dip tube as described by our friend above quote. Put QD back on right away as I knew it'd become a big mess if I didn't. The goal was to remove poppet and spring from QD too. Well, F that now!

Next step is hitting the line with the blow dryer. Hard to tell if anything is frozen. Ugh, this really sucks.
Thanks dudes!

 

[ILMSTMF]

I have to do that with IPA's occasionally. Remove the poppet from the QD and the keg liquid post (MAKE SURE TO RELIEVE THE PRESSURE ON THE KEG FIRST), then reattach, repressurize, and it should work fine as long as the seals on your keg posts and QD's are good. I would just leave it that way for the duration of the keg.

I had a similar issue recently. Come to find out my beer line was laying against some ice forming in the back of the kegerator and had frozen. warmed it with my hand a bit and beer started flowing again.

Per above, I suppose I should have removed the QD poppet at the same time as the keg post poppet. Note the spill I refer to.

Anyway, I took the blow dryer to the line and felt I was pretty thorough with it. No luck.
For kicks, I put 30psi on the keg to see if that might help, of course not.

Resisting the urge to throw in the towel. Or, throw in my Wilser bag in my case lol

Last resort, to me, is to transfer to a different keg. Any other ideas? Thanks!

 

[ILMSTMF]

I think the forum broke last night and some replies got lost.

"Pic of setup may help. Trickling of sanitizer does not mean the tap is working, still could be issues. What kind of tap, picknic? If not, do you have a picknic tap to try, then you may be able o determine keg vs line issue.
Its not a diptube/trub issue since you got flow with the poppet out when you pulled the qd.

If you remove the faucet, do you get flow? Be ready to quickly purge pressure or you will have another mess.

I suspect that if you have standard taps, you may need to adjust the bonnet where the tap-handle attaches. If its adjusted to close to the collar, it does not allow full motion of the tap."

@S-Met - thank you for your ideas.

These are Perlick 650SS with flow control. I do have a picnic tap I can try but I'm paranoid about taking that QD off and causing another mess in the keezer. I'm more worried about taking the tap all the way off and getting a mess in the office from beer flowing out of shank.

Before putting kegs on the lines, I did a full system cleaning with recirculating Oxi. Then ran water and Star San through. Taps and liquid lines were all connected. In the first part, the Oxi recirculated back to the pond pump bucket. And in the final step, the Star San returned back to a capture bucket. After that, nothing was really changed with the lines, tap fixtures... At least that I can remember. I put one keg on and it dispensed fine. Still does!

In any event, referring to this document:

https://www.perlick.com/assets/Uploads/Products/SpecSheets/Forward-Sealing-Faucet.pdf

I loosened handle jacket and compression bonnet. No success. Retightened.
I loosened the ring / sleeve / collar / whatever it's called that attaches the tap to the shank with a spanner wrench. No luck.
Continued loosening it, no luck.
Loosened all the way to the point it felt like the tap was loose. Re-aligned the tap to sit into the "ball" of the shank, tightened that sleeve with the spanner wrench. No luck.

I pulled as much of the line out of the keezer as I could to let it warm up. No luck.

I can see some beer moving around in the line if I pick up the line coil and agitate it. There's an occasional bubble? Thought it might have been ice but even after keeping the line out at room temp for a while, still no luck.

Remembering that I still get a small drop of liquid out of tap when opening it, is there any chance that the John Guest adapter on the QD is clogged? Again, taking that off will result in a mess (I think?)

All ears for any ideas, thank you!

 

[EnglishAndy]

You say you have another keg? Try your liquid QD on that keg by pushing some water through. That'll show your QD is good. If that works OK then I suspect your keg post/poppet interface to the QD.

 

[ILMSTMF]

@EnglishAndy I have four kegs total.

• another IPA, serving fine on tap 1
• the one brew on problematic tap 2
• one keg is pre-purged with CO2
• the last is filled with Star San

I don't want to take the QD off of the problem IPA. It caused gushing when I did that last night, even after depressurizing. I would love if someone could offer a potential way to prevent this very messy occurrence. Would keeping the PRV fully open during this QD removal attempt make any impact on preventing that mess?

That being said, as you can tell I don't want to risk another mess. Thus, unless anything involves removing the QD from that keg, I need a solution to the potential mess before I try it. Thank you!

 

[MrPowers]

@EnglishAndy I have four kegs total.

• another IPA, serving fine on tap 1
• the one brew on problematic tap 2
• one keg is pre-purged with CO2
• the last is filled with Star San

I don't want to take the QD off of the problem IPA. It caused gushing when I did that last night, even after depressurizing. I would love if someone could offer a potential way to prevent this very messy occurrence. Would keeping the PRV fully open during this QD removal attempt make any impact on preventing that mess?

That being said, as you can tell I don't want to risk another mess. Thus, unless anything involves removing the QD from that keg, I need a solution to the potential mess before I try it. Thank you!

Yes, you need to leave the PRV open the whole time you have the QD off if you don’t have a poppet in the liquid post. Otherwise CO2 coming out of solution due to the reduced head pressure will cause beer to shoot out the liquid post. I’m guessing that is what you experienced last night.

Did you remove the poppet from the liquid QD as well? If not, then removing the poppet from the liquid out post on the keg isn’t going to help much. Those two pieces are both on springs that push against each other in order to open, so if you remove the poppet on the keg, but not in the disconnect, there isn’t anything to open the spring on the disconnect.

 

[GPP33]

If you removed the poppet from the keg post then there's nothing to push the poppet in the QD so, yea, nothing will flow.

Can you get beer to flow through that QD/line/faucet from another keg? If so then it sounds like you have an issue with that specific liquid post, if not then you have an issue with your QD or faucet. Process of elimination.

As MrPowers said, relieve the pressure and keep it relieved while you work on the liquid post.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Or just switch to Sanke kegs. I f***ing hate cornie kegs. Too many of these issues.

Just saying.

 

[ILMSTMF]

@MrPowers & @GPP33 - I continue to learn, thank you! The worrywart I am by nature tries to do the safest / least change first. Hence, remove only post poppet and not QD poppet. Blind stupidity, thanks for the education.
On prior advice to depressurize keg before removing QD and post, I only pulled the PRV to release the gas in headspace...then let the PRV close. If I've got what you're saying right, simply keeping it open will prevent beer from gushing out of the liquid post. Should I leave the PRV open for a few minutes before taking the QD off?

I'm going to try removing the F'N QD poppet first and, hopefully, this will solve the motherFKN problem! If it doesn't... Head, meet wall (again).

@Qhrumphf - I respect your position. If I hadn't already made the investment in corny kegs...and if I could fit 4 Sanke's in this keezer the way that I can fit 4 cronies in it... I might consider changing over. ;-)

Thanks dudes! Will let you know tonight how it all goes.

 

[ILMSTMF]

BINGO!!! SOLVED.

Leaving PRV fully open after removing gas QD prevented the mess when removing the liquid QD.

Thank you, FRIENDS, for giving me the confidence and the solution. I love HBT.

Your damn right I'm drinking this truby pint...!

 

[myndflyte]

After having to futz with it so much, I bet that truby pint tastes amazing.

 

[MrPowers]

BINGO!!! SOLVED.

Leaving PRV fully open after removing gas QD prevented the mess when removing the liquid QD.

Thank you, FRIENDS, for giving me the confidence and the solution. I love HBT.

Your damn right I'm drinking this truby pint...!

View attachment 583843

Glad you got it fixed! I’d probably dump that pint though...

 

[ILMSTMF]

YUP!! It's juicy AF. I don't mind that hop dust. Waste not, want not. Let's see how the "true beer" is once its blowing clear.

DUH - THE SOLUTION was to remove the poppers from both keg post and liquid QD.
Now the question is... do I reinstall once the trub clears? Someone here already said to just dispense the whole keg without poppets in. Is there any good reason to reinstall the poppets?

Thank you again!

 

[eddie]

If you're carrying over trub from your secondary to the keg, you're not doing it properly. Are you trying to dispense from the primary?

 

[GPP33]

There’s no point in putting them back in now, just remember to be careful when you kick the keg and take the QD off, you don’t want to take a shower in the crap that’ll be left when the beer runs out.

I’d dump that first pint too, I dump ones way cleaner then that!

 

[EnglishAndy]

Now the question is... do I reinstall once the trub clears? Someone here already said to just dispense the whole keg without poppets in. Is there any good reason to reinstall the poppets?

Dispense as it is now until finished: "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

Afterwards. Test your QD on another keg with just water/sanitiser to see if your QD is bad. If that works fine then test another QD on your iffy keg to see if the post poppet is bad. I suspect the spring poppet in your QD was somehow jammed or was too strong for the post spring to push back against.

The plastic QDs have a finite lifetime and can be scratched inside by the hard stainless posts; mine are all stainless for that reason.

 

[PADave]

I've gone thru this same hassle of clogged taps until the first couple pints were dispensed. Watch with those flow control faucets, they can clog easily. What worked for me was this screen. No more clogs, first pour is clear. Only downside is that you can't fill your keg via the dip tube.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006FX4ZCK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[MrPowers]

YUP!! It's juicy AF. I don't mind that hop dust. Waste not, want not. Let's see how the "true beer" is once its blowing clear.

DUH - THE SOLUTION was to remove the poppers from both keg post and liquid QD.
Now the question is... do I reinstall once the trub clears? Someone here already said to just dispense the whole keg without poppets in. Is there any good reason to reinstall the poppets?

Thank you again!

Definitely leave them out until the keg is finished. If you're worried about forgetting to relieve pressure before you disconnect the keg, put a piece of tape over the disconnect or something to remind yourself.

Also, I second the point to watch out for the flow control faucets. I actually had to switch back to regular faucets (Perlick 630SS) for NEIPA's because my Intertap FC's kept clogging from hop debris.

 

[ILMSTMF]

@eddie - no secondary.

@EnglishAndy - I bet the problem was too much trub in keg getting further restricted by post and QD poppets / springs. Still, I will test those components after the keg kicks. Thank you!

@GPP33 - This morning, my GI system is not happy that I had three cloudy pints last night... TMI? LMAO

@PADave @MrPowers - Now I've got something else to worry about (flow control clogging). I'm not buying different taps now, not in the budget. So, now that the taps are in place and not going anywhere, what do I do if they clog?

Thanks!

 

[MrPowers]

@PADave @MrPowers - Now I've got something else to worry about (flow control clogging). I'm not buying different taps now, not in the budget. So, now that the taps are in place and not going anywhere, what do I do if they clog?

Thanks!

If they haven't clogged already after 3 pints, you'll probably be fine for this keg.

 

[ILMSTMF]

@MrPowers - I always plan for the worst. What if the tap clogs in a future keg?

I've got other issues with the flow control too. Mainly, two out of the four will go to the same stopping point (fully open) as the other two taps. But, with some extra force, the lever can keep going until it finally stops facing down and toward the keezer. Whereas the fully closed flow lever position is pointed down and away from the keezer. I don't want to toy with it for fear of damaging parts. Wondering what might be a good idea to try?

Thank you!

 

[PADave]

@eddie - no secondary.

@EnglishAndy - I bet the problem was too much trub in keg getting further restricted by post and QD poppets / springs. Still, I will test those components after the keg kicks. Thank you!

@GPP33 - This morning, my GI system is not happy that I had three cloudy pints last night... TMI? LMAO

@PADave @MrPowers - Now I've got something else to worry about (flow control clogging). I'm not buying different taps now, not in the budget. So, now that the taps are in place and not going anywhere, what do I do if they clog?

Thanks!

Another thing I've done is take the tap apart and remove the flow control disk thing. It's a real simple design, and pretty easy to figure out. Pour a couple/few pints without the flow control till it clears up, then reinstall the disk back into the tap. Something to take apart and clean on a regular basis anyway, as it's pretty easy for hop debris to get stuck in there.

 

[GPP33]

@eddieNow I've got something else to worry about (flow control clogging). I'm not buying different taps now, not in the budget. So, now that the taps are in place and not going anywhere, what do I do if they clog?

Thanks!

I'd work on not transferring hop debris and trub into the keg, in which case clogged faucets shouldn't be an issue. There are many ways to go about doing this but careful transfers are really all you need. I'd imagine your beers will taste better without astringent plant matter in them too.

I don't think it's been said yet but DO NOT move that keg. As you pull beer you will create a divot where the junk washes out and you'll get clearer and clearer beer. You haven't flushed all of it out, just the stuff around the dip tube, move the keg and it'll redistribute and you'll get junk filled beer again.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Great advice, thank you!

Right, I need to do better transfers. The first place I was thinking of was at the kettle. I've been dumping full volume to fermentor since day one. Have a ball valve in kettle that I can use after a whirlpool, perhaps. But, what I'm investigating this very moment is a hop spider. I already have a kettle hop bag that's never been used. Figure that would be a perfect way to limit solids making it into the final beer.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Great advice, thank you!

Right, I need to do better transfers. The first place I was thinking of was at the kettle. I've been dumping full volume to fermentor since day one. Have a ball valve in kettle that I can use after a whirlpool, perhaps. But, what I'm investigating this very moment is a hop spider. I already have a kettle hop bag that's never been used. Figure that would be a perfect way to limit solids making it into the final beer.

While that will somewhat help it's the cold crashing that makes the difference. I always crash in the fermentor then transfer to the kegs. If that's not possible due to your process/ ferm chamber setup you can crash in your keg and discard the first few pours AND avoid ever moving the keg OR after discarding the first few pours transfer to another clean keg. crashing in the keg isn't ideal however because you very possibly will have a blocked connection again to deal with. Cheers

 

[ILMSTMF]

crashing in the keg isn't ideal however because you very possibly will have a blocked connection again to deal with. Cheers

Being new to having a refrigerated device to serve kegged beer from, I consider the beer sitting in the keg (within the keezer) as a secondary crash. I have a separate FC that I crash the beer in before transferring to keg. I will probably never do the initial / only crash in keg. ;-)

The reason I had the problem with tap dispensing this beer in the first place was because I transferred too much sediment during siphoning from bucket to keg. I unintentionally let the siphon inverter / sediment reducer get too close to the yeast cake among some other accidents that disrupted the cake. Beer is flowing now and lessons have been learned!

 

[GPP33]

As a point of reference I rarely cold crash in the fermentor and have never had a problem dispensing beer. The only time I cold crash in the fermentor is if I have over about 3 oz of dry hops. All the stuff from your kettle should settle out early in fermentation and ends up below the yeast cake. Put a mark on your siphon about an inch up from the end and once you start getting down to the end of the transfer make sure you don't dip it in any deeper than that line, when you start sucking yeast stop the transfer, you'll leave some beer behind, it's just part of the game when using a siphon. Move to spigots if you want to get every last drop.

 

[Blazinlow86]

As a point of reference I rarely cold crash in the fermentor and have never had a problem dispensing beer. The only time I cold crash in the fermentor is if I have over about 3 oz of dry hops. All the stuff from your kettle should settle out early in fermentation and ends up below the yeast cake. Put a mark on your siphon about an inch up from the end and once you start getting down to the end of the transfer make sure you don't dip it in any deeper than that line, when you start sucking yeast stop the transfer, you'll leave some beer behind, it's just part of the game when using a siphon. Move to spigots if you want to get every last drop.

Agreed it would take alot of dryhops to clog the connection although it's happened to a buddy several times lol. My comment about cold crashing was more so aimed at all around sediment free end product in the packaging. Cheers

 

[GPP33]

Agreed it would take alot of dryhops to clog the connection although it's happened to a buddy several times lol. My comment about cold crashing was more so aimed at all around sediment free end product in the packaging. Cheers

If you do lots of free floating dry hops cold crashing becomes a necessity if you want to get most of your beer and no hops.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Agreed it would take alot of dryhops to clog the connection although it's happened to a buddy several times lol. My comment about cold crashing was more so aimed at all around sediment free end product in the packaging. Cheers

If you do lots of free floating dry hops cold crashing becomes a necessity if you want to get most of your beer and no hops.

So, to prevent this / minimize the potential of this happening in the future, will continue to cold crash the fermentor. My dry hops are added to a fine mesh bag - I used to toss pellets in commando style.

For this particular recipe, 5 oz of pellet hops were thrown in loose during boil. Entire volume transferred from kettle to fermentor. No filtering, no whirlpool. 2 oz of dry hops in the fine bag. I ended up with just about 1 gallon of trub.
Another point I should make - the FV is in FC in the garage. I carry it up a flight of stairs to where the keg transfer happens. I do my best to minimize the disruption of the FV contents during it's voyage.

Anyway, the next to-do is creating that hop spider for kettle additions. I think that will help with sediment / potential clogs. I welcome your suggestions for other techniques worth considering, thanks!

 

[mongoose33]

As you consider a hop spider, you will want to take into account that the effect of the hops may be less than you're expecting.

I've used a hop spider; I ended up with less hoppiness than when they were just poured in "commando," as you say.

I have been more recently using a hop basket that hangs on the side of the boil kettle; it's better at hop utilization, but still not 100 percent. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072Q1G91R/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 I was able to position it so the boiling wort would bubble up through the basket.

The antidote to this is more hops. I'm probably moving away from that and will experiment with Cryohops and other ways of doing this including hop oil.

If you want to pay for shipping, I'll send you my hop spider.