Beer in Gas Line

[ksbrain]

This has never happened to me before, and I'm not sure how it happened this time, but I just put my IIPA on gas last night, and I noticed some chunks in the gas line. I'm thinking it blew some hop/yeast debris in there when I hooked up the gas because maybe it was higher pressure inside the keg than inside the gas line.

Should I disassemble and clean this now dirty line? Can it wait until after the keg's kicked?

 

[Jmac00]

most likely you filled your keg too high. If you fill it so that the end of the gas tube is submerged in beer, it will cause beer to backup in the gas line.

 

[Bopper]

If pressure in the keg is higher than the pressure setting on the regular, you will get backup into the gas lines. A simple and very cheap way to prevent this is to install check lines in the gas lines. After your keg blows, I would disassemble and clean the gas lines out. Also make sure the liquid didn't back up into the regulator.

Until you have the check valves, make sure that you don't connect a keg that has pressure higher than what the regulator is set to (e.g. if you burst carb at 30psi, disconnect the keg and bleed the pressure off the keg and then decrease the regulator setting down to serving pressure before reconnecting.)

 

[ksbrain]

My regulator is about ten feet from the keg, and there's a check valve back at the manifold anyway. I'm sure that's all safe and the other kegs should be fine.

I'll clean it out after this keg's dead. Maybe make it an opportunity to trim the gas line. With my latest keg fridge configuration, two of my gas lines could be trimmed significantly.

Thanks!

 

[bmckee56]

This has happened to me several times when I take a keg that has been in reserve and held @ 30psi and hook it up to my system. I have forgotten to lower the pressure in the keg so as not to have backflow into the gas lines.

The beer in the lines should be cleaned out when the keg is emptied, as the beer will eventually go bad and cause some nasty reactions.

Relax though and enjoy the beer you just tapped. Clean the lines when the keg is done.

Salute!