A moment of silence please...

[brewdogskip]

I woke up to 5 gallons of an old ale on my carpet at 4:30 this morning, that was not fun . Just wondering if anyone has any ideas about what happened as I haven't looked at the rig yet (tired from 5 hours of shampooing carpet between classes).

Here's the scenerio,

We finished a keg of pale ale on Tuesday night so I swapped in a new keg and set my regulator 25 psi to carbonate and put it in the fridge (39*F, 3/4 tank left).

The departed..

Empty/frosted CO2 tank

So I lost 5 gallons of delicious ale to that scumbag carpet shampooer and a tank of CO2. The keg did have a leaky IN poppet valve but I thought that being connected to the reg. it would be fine. Does anyone have any insight as to what could have went wrong? Donations will be accepted until the pipeline gets up and running again...

 

[Chello]

My guess would be that the picnic tap got stuck in the door in the on position, or the lever got pushed backwards which also opens it up full boar.

Tis a shame...

 

[Displaced MassHole]

Damn.....my condolences.


Next time you go with the "set it and forget it" carb method, disconnect the beer out line.

 

[brewdogskip]

I doubt it was the tap because there was still beer in the OUT line and I now have an empty CO2 tank, hmmm the murderer is Colonel Mustard?

 

[azscoob]

Dad! Bob broke your beer!.....no I didn't! Doug broke it!

Honestly though, this saddens me. The poor fella, never had the chance to make anyone happy.

 

[Wade E]

My beer flag is at 1/2 staff!

 

[Zen_Brew]

What a mess! What a shame! Oh the beermanity! My condolences.

Obviously you had a leak somehwere. (Duh) If it was on the gas side you would have just lost gas, so it was either in the keg itself, the beer out connector, the beer line, or the picnic tap.

I'd get more gas, fill the keg up with water, hook it up and start looking for a leak. It could also be as someone else stated that the picnic connector was oriented in such a way as to open the valve a bit.

 

[Pivot]

i knoe how you feel sir. I left for 3 weeks and left an english bitter in the primary while i was gone. when i got back, i realized the entire batch had been overrun with flies living on some food in the garbage that i forgot to bring out before i left. i cried for 5 days straight after dumping that batch out hahah....

 

[Reddheadedstepchild]

Sounds like a bad case of the beer nymphs. My condolences to you Sir.

 

[l1ranger]

sniff, sniff

no I'm fine, just got something in my eye

 

[shortyjacobs]

Your beer out post leaks, your beer out QD leaks, or your picnic tap got stuck open, (and there was some foam in there that turned back into beer after the CO2 tank emptied.

The frost on the CO2 tank means that all the beer was forced out of the keg, then all the CO2 that was in the tank followed it. With all the CO2 being discharged so quickly, the temp of the CO2 tank fell drastically, hence the frost.

Sucks man.

 

[brewdogskip]

Your beer out post leaks, your beer out QD leaks, or your picnic tap got stuck open, (and there was some foam in there that turned back into beer after the CO2 tank emptied.

The frost on the CO2 tank means that all the beer was forced out of the keg, then all the CO2 that was in the tank followed it. With all the CO2 being discharged so quickly, the temp of the CO2 tank fell drastically, hence the frost.

Sucks man.

Kinda what I was thinking, thanks for steering me in the right direction. We're getting snowed in for the weekend so I can put my new heat stick to use and make up for our losses. I wonder if the swmbo would let me do a double batch day?

 

[bja]

I wonder if the swmbo would let me do a double batch day?

Just go for it. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

BTW, sorry for your loss.

 

[ChshreCat]

I think it all leaked out because your fridge and everything in it is sideways.

 

[david_42]

Wasn't quite as bad, but I lost part of a batch because I tried to "fix" a leaky OUT poppet by attaching a picnic tap. Except the o-ring on the post was cracked as well.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

Prohibition Poltergeist did it!

 

[mordantly]

you can be SURE it is a major leak to blow the co2 that fast and freeze it up! i just cried for your loss. like someone said, start with the out post... the o-ring, and hose clamp on the disconnect... if the cobra was closed still.

 

[Arkador]

I leave my serving line on while force carbing, because I lost half a keg through the ball lock post, it slipped out between the post and the poppet.

If there is still beer in the serving line, it sounds like there was a leak between your post and QD... just my $.02

I replaced every oring on every keg last fall. and plan to replace every oring every 5th batch into a keg (other than the bail oring) and have not had a leak since.

 

[BSBrewer]

anyone up for a 21 shot salute to our fallen solider? =p

 

[mordantly]

i blew a keg last night in it's honor.

 

[slakwhere]

anyone up for a 21 shot salute to our fallen solider? =p

i did 2, but now i have to get back to work

my condolences. not the thread i wanted to see while stripping down a fridge to turn into a kegorator. perhaps i need a liquid catch bucket in my new kegorator