When do kegs leak?

Hey there,

Kind of a weird question. I switched to kegging on my last batch. Kegged up a batch on Sunday and so far so good.

I have another batch that's ready to keg, and I was thinking of hooking it up Thursday night. I'm going out of town for the weekend though, and I don't want to run into a freezer full of beer when I return.

So my question is, when can I feel confident that it won't leak? If I keg it Thursday night, and check it Friday morning and it hasn't leaked, can I be pretty confident that it won't leak?

I hope that makes sense. I've got ball-lock cornies in a keezer. I bought the kegs used and they held pressure when they arrived. I took them apart to clean them and everything looks good (as far as I can tell).

Any guidance would be much appreciated. Hooray beer.

 

the only issue you'd have will a freezer full of beer would be if you left it connected to a picnic tap and it got pried open somehow (which def happens)

if it's still holding pressure then you should be fine, worse case if you have a leak you'll have flat beer and an empty co2 tank

you can always take some star san and spray it around the posts and the lid to see if it's leaking any air by watching for small bubbles

 

Ah, good to know. I have them hooked up to shanks and faucets. So the out post isn't a big concern for leaking beer?

 

You should be able to leave everything hooked up without issue, if you have no leaks.

I literally just found 3 kegs on gas after 2 years. (Yea, I'm a terrible homebrewer)
The 5# tank was left on. The whole time. It's still full!

If you're concerned about leaks I have 3 bits of advice. Number one is a spray bottle of StarSan as mentioned above. If you're really paranoid, unhook the serving lines. That immediately eliminates the out QD's and the faucets for possible leaks. Also, Keg Lube is your friend. A little bit goes a long way, and it seals great. If you have an iffy keg lid or a QD that doesn't like to go on or off well, it does the trick.

The only way you lose a keg of beer on the floor is the output side leaking somewhere, and that's very rare (And almost always caused by a picnic tap getting wedged on)

Most of the time if you find a leak, it's because the Co2 tank is empty.

 

Excellent. Really appreciate the replies. I'm feeling pretty confident now. Special thanks to you, sweetsounds, I found some good info from you on kegging by searching the forums. It really helped me get things going.

Cheers.

 

Thanks! Glad to help.