Beer-splosion :(

Woke up to this:




That's beer, probably about a gallon of it, sitting at the bottom of my chamber. I had noticed some beer sneaking up the dispensing line the other day, but didn't really think anything of it. I guess that should have been a sign there was a problem? Any ideas as to what it could have been?

I hate this feeling

 

Ouch. My condolences on your loss.
My guess would be a leak in your liquid line, probably at the shank end, since you said you say beer sneaking up the dispensing line. I'd take it off the keg and triple-check all the connections.

 

Are you using a picnic tap? Did it leak at the hose connection or out of a faulty tap head? Was the tap slightly pressed down?

 

Oh, yeah... if it was a picnic tap, that's likely the problem. Those things are notorious for leaking. If you just drop it in your keezer there, Murphy's Law says you'll drop it in such a position to start a slow drain, and end up filling your keezer with beer.

 

Yeah, it is a picnic tap... Didn't notice any beer around the post, and like I said, there was beer in the line. Ugh. I suppose I'll find out for sure when I get home from work today. I disconnected the dispensing line, so if there's no new accumulation, I guess that'd be the problem. I'm pretty sure it was locked onto the post firmly, I dispensed the sanitizer through that line and never disconnected before transferring the beer into the keg.

What really makes it frustrating is that I was already a gallon short due to botching my volumes on brew day.


I guess I'll just have to tell myself that the beer is SO tasty that the beer gods demanded a sacrifice

 

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

 

I said something similar when I opened up the keezer this morning... Though it was spelled differently, and rhymes with "buck."

 

By and through the power of the noble hops, I absolve you from you sin of leaving a cheap, plastic, and presumably foreign made picnic tap hooked up to your keg during storage, for doing so is a sin again God and your fellow man.

For you act of penance, you are to drink 3 Bud Lights and one Strongbow, and abstain from IPA's for 72 hours. So shall it be written, so shall it be done.

Now go unto the world and be a light to those in darkness.

 

A bit harsh, but I accept my penance.

 

Beer line = straw.

Gotta empty that out somehow.

 

Been there done that. 5 gallons of Abbey double right in the bottom of the keezer. My only solace is knowing I got to drink an awesome pint before it dumped..

 

I lost an entire corny of Apfelwein to a leaky poppit. Lost another full sankey sixtel this time of carbonating beer plus an entire 5# CO2 tank due to regulator creep paired with a picnic tap. Pressure forced the picnic tap to leak and the PRV on the regulator kept burping. Never fun when it happens. My condolences on your loss.

The lesson you get to take out of this is when carbonating dont hook up the serving line. Its not worth it. Plus it helps keep you from sampling before it is ready. This is far easier to do when you have a pipeline of kegs built up (I highly recommend having a spare gas line so you can carbonate while serving). At least there is still beer in that there keg.

 

Very, very true. I'm trying to focus on the positives...

After siphoning up what I could from the bottom of the freezer (btw, taking the yeast-guard off the bottom of the auto-siphon made for a great bilge pump...), at least the beer was nice and clear with good color. So at least I know my cold crash worked well

Plus it got rid of all the sediment!

 

If there is ever a next time. There should be a plug at the bottom of that freezer and one on the front (that is the 7 Cu foot GE right?). It will allow you to drain it to the floor. The plug on the bottom screws in the front one pulls out.

 

Yeah it does, but my garage doesn't have a drain, and oddly enough, until I can get it cleaned up and reorganized, I'd rather have the beer contained in the freezer rather than on the garage floor.

 

you might have issues with leaving the beer in there long-term. the metal inside the freezer isn't likely water-tight. beer will have already started seeping past the seams and into the foam, but keeping it in there will only prolong and exacerbate the issue. the drain in the freezer is to help with de-icing, you're not supposed to have gallons of liquid in there for a long time.

when this happened to me, after I drained the beer out (through the drain) I had to continuously keep drying out the freezer as more beer kept seeping back in from the seams.

 

Oh yeah, after I auto-siphoned what I could, I got my brother's shop-vac that afternoon and made sure I sucked up what I could around the seams at the bottom.

I checked on the keg before I went to bed, and then that morning is when I found the beer in the bottom. So I'd say it sat with a gallon for 6-7 hours tops, then the 1qt that remained for another 7 hours until I could get the shop vac.


Edit: I'd still like to inspect the o-ring for the dip tube... Should I wait until I'm done with the keg, and just be super cautious with connecting and disconnecting the tap line whenever I want to pour (when it's done conditioning)?

Or should I shut the gas off, disconnect, vent, disassemble that post, inspect, sanitize, and reassemble?

I hate to break the seal on the thing and risk infection, but I always have my handy spray bottle of star san

 

Wait. Wipe down the keg. If after a few days more under pressure you don't see any drop marks you should be good. If you don't notice leaks you probably have nothing to worry about