So this happened a few days ago, and ohh how sad a day it was. It started with Picking up mother in law from the airport. When we go home we got to enjoy a slow cooker pot roast which was timed just right. So I poured me a Wheat beer to go with dinner. After dinner and an empty glass I figured I would pour another. My kegs are out in a fridge in my garage. So I head out to the garage, and my mouth drops... My garage floor is like a creak. Some how my Picnic tap got stuck open and dumped my keg (roughly 3 1/2 Gallons). That was a terrible day. Not really sure what happened. Luckily it didn't drain my co2.
bad day with a keg
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mirthfuldragon
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Have you ever taken apart your ball-lock fittings to give them a good cleaning, re-assembled, then hooked back up a fresh keg of IPA with a borderline ridiculous amount of pricey hops, only to come back a few days later, realize you forgot one of the o-rings in the ball lock fitting, so now your keezer is full of five gallons of IPA and your keg is empty? You should definitely not do that the day before you leave for a two week vacation.
I turned off the gas, disconnected everything, and left it until I got back. Shop vacs do wonders for sucking up spilt beer.
I turned off the gas, disconnected everything, and left it until I got back. Shop vacs do wonders for sucking up spilt beer.
I'll commiserate. Back in January I brewed a batch of beer that was right on the line between an american amber and american pale. The day that I brewed, I had a faucet leak on me and leak out a bunch of beer that overflowed my drip tray on to the floor. I got a boot tray to go on the floor under the drip tray anyway since some drips often end up on the floor when filling bottles or growlers anyway. Fermented, kegged, and carbonated the new keg ended up on tap in the same spot that I had the leak on brew day, but I had assumed the leak was because I let it go too long between cleanings. Ended up with a leak that filled both the drip tray and the boot tray. Cleaned up the mess, but didn't take the faucet apart because the poppet started leaking as well, so it would leak while I was trying to fix the faucet leak. A few weeks later, same thing happened all over again, only a much faster leak. I'm pretty sure I lost at least 4 of the 5 gallons of that batch to the floor and drip trays.
Took the faucets apart for a good soak, clean and inspecion. My current operating theory is that i didn't have the "compression bonnet" tightened well enough and that was causing the leaks. Will be putting a brut IPA on that tap in the coming weeks, I sure hope I don't continue to enable the trays' drinking problems.
Took the faucets apart for a good soak, clean and inspecion. My current operating theory is that i didn't have the "compression bonnet" tightened well enough and that was causing the leaks. Will be putting a brut IPA on that tap in the coming weeks, I sure hope I don't continue to enable the trays' drinking problems.
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Redpappy
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sounds like your drip trays have a major problem, you should keep on eye on them to make sure they don't take advantage...
I shouldn't have a cleaning issue, just because I have only put one keg though the lines, and have cleaned it before adding a new keg to it... I am loving begging... 10 min from fermentor to fridge versus an hour. but I do see the down side, 3 1/2 gallons versus 12 ounces.
I've had my picnic taps stick open on my 30 psi sodas but I haven't had a problem (yet) with 12 psi beers. Since the first time, I've always made sure the tap wasn't drippy before I set it down and walked away though.
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Redpappy
Well-Known Member
my routine is once I'm done poring, I tap the novel against the glass to get everything I can, then I set the tap in-between the wires. I never had an issue till then. I was so sad, seeing all that good beer go down the drain.
Sorry.
This hasn't happened to me in my short kegging career thankfully, but the possibility has occurred to me. I'm planning to disconnect and flush the bev line and turn off the C02 at the bottle when I leave on vacation this summer. If there is a keg in there at the time it should just maintain its current level of carb until I get back.
My kegerator is on an indoor wood floor, so I'm thinking if a keg of beer had a week to soak in to that, I'd never get the smell out.
This hasn't happened to me in my short kegging career thankfully, but the possibility has occurred to me. I'm planning to disconnect and flush the bev line and turn off the C02 at the bottle when I leave on vacation this summer. If there is a keg in there at the time it should just maintain its current level of carb until I get back.
My kegerator is on an indoor wood floor, so I'm thinking if a keg of beer had a week to soak in to that, I'd never get the smell out.
Just make sure your poppets don't leak (like mine)!
Yeah, I thought of that too, but you are down to a single failure point there (beverage side poppet) and you should be able to easily visually see if it is leaking right?
What is the normal procedure that people do here?
What is the normal procedure that people do here?
How long is your summer vacation? Assuming you'll just be gone a week to 10 days, I wouldn't do anything. If it's longer, I might consider draining and cleaning the lines and faucets before you go, but I'd do that to keep the lines and faucets clean, not to avoid leaks.
I figure that if the taps don't leak while i'm home, there's no reason to think they'll leak while I'm away. About 7 years with a kegerator or keezer at home now and the only time leaks have started have been either right after or very shortly after pouring a beer.
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Color me paranoid, but I never have CO2 hooked up unless transferring. Once carbed, it gets disconnected, bumped with CO2 when needed.
I'll be gone about ten days.
I don't know, I'm sure it would likely be fine, but anything on the beverage pressure side is a possible failure point... faucet itself, castle nut on the shank, line to shank, line to bev out connector, bev out connector to bev post... Like 5 things that could leak, vs. one if the line is disconnected.
Several years ago I came real close to disaster with a leaking water line while I was gone... now I turn off the water any time I'm going to be gone more than a couple days. If something lets go I'd rather know about it in a few hours than a few days.
