Always check....

[Myrdhyn]

Your keg posts. Especially don't forget to check them the first time you use the keg <facepalm>.

I was getting ready to keg my Belgian Wit today, so I went with SOP: Pulled clean empty keg, mixed 2.5G Starsan, shook it like crazy, proceeded to hook up to kegerator to dispense so as to sanitize the lines/fittings/faucet/etc. As soon as I hooked up the CO2 in, I started getting the foam out of the base of the liquid out post. So I immediately disconnected everything, vented the keg and started investigating.

Cause number 1, the liquid out post wasn't even FINGER TIGHT. Cause number 2, the dip tube gasket was tragically worn. Fortunately, I had a spare gasket, got everything tightened up and it is all working leak free now.

This concludes a public service announcement brought to you by Tiny Apartment Brewing!

 

[dontman]

You were going to put a keg into production without breaking it down and replacing the gaskets on the first use? Lucky that post was so loose. You might have had a root beer flavored wit.

 

[Myrdhyn]

I always clean and soak for hours in Oxyclean, then replace the orings on the post and lid, but I rarely break down the actual posts. My procedure is to dispense a kegful (or half kegful) of oxyclean mixture through the whole system, then two kegs (or halfs) of hot water, then a keg of starsan. No problems yet.

Plus, fortunately, I know all these kegs had pepsi or mt. dew, so I can be safe from rootbeer.

From this day forward, I think I'm going to change my procedure to at least break everything down and double check it first.

 

[Irie5447]

I'm new to kegging and purchased two kegs online. I then went to LHBS down the street and was talking to owner telling him I'm new to kegging and just BSing. I said I would like all new O rings for the entire keg and he said u never ever need to pull the posts off of any keg because there are little dimples and impressions on the post Orings and if u remove them they will leak. He then said all u need to do is purchase this keg post cleaner that hooked up to both posts and a faucet and it would clean them out. I was very skeptical having learned so much about breaking down new kegs here. Well anyway didn't listen to him and pulled the post on my kegs to find gooey sticky black kruddy soda syrup all underneath. Needless to say I wont be taking his advice to heart.

 

[Myrdhyn]

I'm reasonably new myself only done like 6 beers, two were Mr. Beer, and today an apfelwein. However, I've been kegging since I started brewing (never bottled a non Mr. Beer homebrew yet), and I've got literally hundreds of hours of research/reading done on kegging and just about every other facet of homebrewing I can think of to the point that nothing really surprises me anymore, so I feel like I've progressed, however slightly, beyond the newbie stage.

I've talked fairly extensively with my LHBS guy and a few of his regulars (not myself of course, I'm not crazy yet). He's actually the kegkits.com guy if you are familiar. Anyway, he seems very knowledgeable about the whole corny-keg industry thing based on double checking what he's told me with multiple sources, and this is what he told me about breaking down the actual posts: He had/has a buddy that was working in the industry when the soda industry actually used corny kegs for syrup. They did a study on breaking down and cleaning kegs, and found (based on a VERY large sample size) that over 90% of all kegs that ran across did not need the seals inside the posts replaced, just cleaned.

That is why I've gone with my method of running cleaner -> hot water -> hot water -> sanitizer. The main problem with this keg was the post that wasn't even finger tight, as far as the o-ring on the poppet valve goes, maybe it was one of those in the 10%, or maybe I'm just an untrained eye and it was fine, but it really looked like it needed replacing. It looked similar to worn out washers on a leaky faucet, so I replaced it anyway. Keg is holding air/liquid just fine now.