Clogged Dip Tube

My wife has started helping me some with brewing. I was out of town for over a week, and I had a batch that needed dry hopping. Massive dry hopping.

I sent her the instructions and she followed them exactly except the whole thing about putting the pellets in one of the little mesh bags I had made and placed right beside the pellet hops. Of course you see where this is going. I tried steel wool and it clogged immediately. What are my options here?

 

Steel wool? That's a new one. I hope it was at least stainless steel.

If you have a second keg, cold-crash the clogged keg to sink the hops then rack off to the 2nd keg...

Cheers!

 

Sorry...it was a steel scouring pad, not steel wool. Not sure where that came from. I guess racking to another keg is my only option. I'll go ahead and get that started, although I'm really worried about foam given the fact that it's already carbed.

 

Cut the dip tube

 

I've had luck forcing CO2 through the dip tube (just reverse the connection after depressurization). Then cold crash it for a few days before serving again.

 

I see this posted a lot, but wouldn't it require an entirely separate gas line with a liquid fitting? Along with reconnecting everything?

 

For ball lock nope - just swap.

For pin lock, I just remove the tubing that goes to the tap and connect another piece of tubing to the regulator.

 

My ball lock kegs have different gas in and liquid out posts. The flanges are different. Gray will only fit on the gas post, and black will only fit on liquid. Am I missing something?

 

DO NOT "just swap" by placing the gas disconnect on the liquid out post. They are not the same size. You will have a hell of a time removing it and you may break the disconnect trying. Ask me how I know...

A much better idea is to connect a liquid disconnect to the gas line, then place that on the liquid post. Turn the pressure up for a few seconds and let that clear the clog. Then connect your gas/liquid lines as normal. This is much easier to do with MFL threaded disconnects since you can swap them out pretty easily.

 

No, you aren't missing anything. It was a bad suggestion.

 

When you get that keg cold enough, the CO2 will settle down and keep foaming to a minimum. I have taken the poppet out of the OUT post as well as the guts out of the connector to stop the clogging. Push in to a purged keg with CO2.

 

I just siphoned it into another keg that had fortunately just kicked. Everything is flowing now.

 

You can use a socket to swap the gas post over the liquid side. Or equivalently, swap the location of the gas and liquid dip-tubes. It's just a question which is less effort, swapping the posts or swapping the fittings. At least on ball-locks, the posts fit on either side, and so do the dip-tubes. The labeling on the keg is just for reference.