and the moral is.... upgrade your picnic taps!

[mandoman]

So last night I stepped into the garage to get a second pint of a fairly recent apa. Nice beer, just getting drinkable (although the keg was already about 1/3 empty). Went out to get a second and, for some reason, didn't turn the light on cuz it's only maybe 8 feet from the door to the fridge. My first sensation before I even opened the fridge was cold water on my socks. WTF? Opened the door to the fridge and noticed beer APA all over the fridge floor and now that the fridge light illuminated the garage I saw the beer trail out of the fridge almost all the way to the garage door!!!!!!!!! WTF? I lost all but about 2 pints (which I quickly consumed to help deal with the recent loss). Swept and hosed out the mess, cleaned the kegs, and got things back to normal.

All I can figure is that when I closed the fridge I activated the picnic tap and it drained itself. I have 3 cornies in a regular size fridge so it's pretty tight and I hang the picnic tap on the edge of the cornie. I guess this is my cue to set up some taps!

frack!


cb

 

[EdWort]

That sucks big time. One of the nice things about picnic taps is they stay on the inside of the fridge when it is in a hot garage and don't get gunked up like faucets on the door will.

You might try to fashion some kind of system that will hang the picnic faucet out of the way, safe and secure from the door. If you could put some kind of hook inside, you cold loop a heavy rubber band around the picnic tap at the hose and use the loop to hang it.

 

[mandoman]

thanks for the idea, ed. I just never thought about it, you know? One of those things. I think my wife thought I was going to cry. Worst part (yes, it gets worse) is I was going to enter it in my first comp next month. I just hadn't gotten around to bottling it. Oh well, I have a stout/porter/brown on tap, a new blonde coming on shortly, and a mild fermenting. I guess I'll enter two beers instead of three.


cb

 

[Mutilated1]

That sucks big time. One of the nice things about picnic taps is they stay on the inside of the fridge when it is in a hot garage and don't get gunked up like faucets on the door will.

uh oh I did not realize that would happen. is that what I've got to look forward to when it gets hot in my garage again ?

Is there anything I can do to mitigate the problem ?

 

[EdWort]

uh oh I did not realize that would happen. is that what I've got to look forward to when it gets hot in my garage again ?

Is there anything I can do to mitigate the problem ?

Move the fridge inside the house is one.

The other would be to use forward sealing faucets and spray the inside with Starsan after using the faucet.

The problem is that the garage gets in the 90s and the faucet drippings dry and get sticky, moldy, and attract insects.

This 25 cent gadget would help too.

Keg Beer Faucet Spout Plug

 

[zoebisch01]

I have been thinking about trying to get some kind of pull-out tap board that stays either in the fridge or above in the freezer.

 

[tdavisii]

i had a post spew my beer out for several minutes before i caught it one time. I feel your pain brother.

 

[TexLaw]

I've been there, too. I hang the hose over the top of the corny a bit, so that the tap hangs a bit below the top of the corny. Even in your most packed fridge, you have some room between kegs. The only thing you have to worry about, then, is not pulling the tap trigger when you bring it up from that space, but that's not much of a problem.


TL

 

[farmbrewernw]

Move the fridge inside the house is one.

The other would be to use forward sealing faucets and spray the inside with Starsan after using the faucet.

The problem is that the garage gets in the 90s and the faucet drippings dry and get sticky, moldy, and attract insects.

This 25 cent gadget would help too.

Keg Beer Faucet Spout Plug

I think I may need that gadget my dog just recently got into licking my faucets.

 

[bottleopener]

I think I may need that gadget my dog just recently got into licking my faucets.

can't go wrong with positive feedback

 

[MrNate]

If it makes you feel any better I had the same thing happen with regular faucets... sort of. The flare fitting on the liquid QD wasn't tightened securely and somehow it got bumped or moved without the bumper noticing that beer was now leaking from it. I won't say who the bumper was, but I blame myself for not checking the connection anyway.

Anyway, end result was a waterfall of beer pouring out of the bottom of my fridge. Fortunately the keg was 2/3 gone already.

 

[ChshreCat]

A friend of mine got tired of his picnic tap falling to the bottom of his freezer so he got a cheap retractable key chain, hooked one end to his tap, the other end to the top of the corny and it just hung down the side. When he used the tap he just pulled it out and when it was done it went right back where he wanted it on the side.

 

[Bobby_M]

I have the $30 Perlicks and still lost 4 gallons of beer into the belly of the kegger due to a slow leak in the top of the disconnect. The gasket was nicked just enough for it to leak out over the course of 2 days.

 

[DutchK9]

A friend of mine got tired of his picnic tap falling to the bottom of his freezer so he got a cheap retractable key chain, hooked one end to his tap, the other end to the top of the corny and it just hung down the side. When he used the tap he just pulled it out and when it was done it went right back where he wanted it on the side.

That is a good idea if you use taps. Still won't give up on a Perlick though.
I just bought 4 all SS Perlicks off a guy on ebay for $100 shipped.

 

[Hifiguy]

I know this post is 5 years old but I have to mention this happened to me last month. Somehow, when I slammed the door it must have jiggled the picnic tap handle just enough to start a leak. My mini fridge is upstairs, above my garage.

I left for a walk with my wife, came back about an hour later, opened the garage only to see a puddle on the floor, and glanced up to see something dripping from the ceiling. I thought for a moment, that a pipe may have burst.....until I recognized the smell of hops, filtered through a nice padding of owens corning insulation.

If it wouldn't have been for that insulation, I would have stood there and filled up my glass! I'm now designing a perlick faucet attachment out of wood, that attaches to the side of my corny.