Beer in Keg, Poppet Leaks Under Pressure

[khiddy]

This is my first kegging experience. Tuesday night, I cleaned and sanitized my new corny keg, gave it 30psi of pressure, and there appeared to be no leaks when empty. I racked my beer into the keg (10 days in primary -> directly to keg, no priming sugar), charged it up to blow off the air from the headspace, and then ramped up the CO2 to 30psi because I thought I might force carb it (impatience!).

What should happen, but a tiny leak started coming out of the "Out" port. I bled off the pressure and tried to re-seat the poppet, and it appeared to seat, so I applied some more CO2 (to 15psi this time), removed the QDs, and put the keg out in the garage. I don't plan to serve from the keg until May 15, so no hurry. I know I needed to apply some pressure to the headspace to carb over time, and that looks about right for the style.

Last night (Wednesday), I pulled the pressure release to make sure there was still pressure, and had the nice satisfying hiss of lots of pressure. This morning, I wandered into the garage to check to double-check that there was no leak, and I was paranoid that I might've let off too much pressure with my check the previous night. It looked fine. I went and got my CO2 tank, and ramped it up to near 30psi again, and it started leaking out of the "Out" port again - slowly, but certainly. I grabbed my party tap QD and hooked it up, the beer pours out flat. Of course it will be flat, it's only been on CO2 for a day, but I want to know what I should do.

Will it properly carb at 15psi (it's about 55 degrees in my garage)? Or is the slow leak caused by my cranking it up to 30psi, and it'll be fine at a lower pressure? Should I leave the party tap on the Out port to keep it from leaking out the poppet? Should I leave the CO2 tank attached? Am I using the right psi? How do I figure that out?

 

[JesseRC]

Well you could put you party tap on and leave it on for now. Or you could take the out post off and put some lube on the poppet. I have a few kegs that do this, even with new poppets. THe keg lube works wonders. You might also be able to just take it off gas, release pressure using valve, take some lube, push in on poppet and push a little lube in there. It cant hurt. As for the carbing pressure, you'll need to ref a carb chart to determine pressure at temp per style.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

You said the keg is in your garage...it needs to be cold for it to force-carb up at a reasonable pressure. I don't know how cold it is in OR but...the keg needs to be cold.

I would just leave the QD on if the poppet leaks.

 

[khiddy]

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll pick up a tube of Keg Lube at the LHBS tonight, but I'll just plan to leave the QD on. Gives me a chance to test the brew a bit over the next few weeks, too.

I'm gonna get the keg into a mini-fridge tonight. I gotta take the fridge apart to accommodate the keg (the darn freezer's in the way), and then we're good to go. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Weizenheimer]

I have some poppets that do the same thing. I just connect the tap line and voila. The leak just goes into the beer line until the pressure is equalized. I also have a clean party tap I use for this on occasion.