CO2 Draining Too Fast and Beer Leaking Into Keezer

[skylervm]

I started homebrewing in January and I've been lurking here ever since. The site's been incredibly helpful and up until now, I've been able to find the answers to just about every question I've had. Today I had a bit of a mishap that I could really use some help with.

About two weeks ago I finished building a keezer.

I got my CO2 tank filled, hooked it all up and everything went fine. Until I realized the CO2 tank had completely drained in about 4 days. During that time, I'd dispensed MAYBE 10 beers.

So I got it refilled the other day and hooked it all up again yesterday. I should've checked for leaks first, but had planned to just shut the gas off after I got myself a beer. Well, I forgot until about an hour ago and when I went to check on it, half the gas was gone and there was about 4 inches of liquid sitting in the bottom. My pressure was at about 10psi when all this happened.

I have two kegs in there right now. One has beer, the other has cider. When I looked at the kegs, there was a small amount of foam around the lid of the beer keg. I didn't notice anything unusual with the cider keg. The weird part is, the beer keg hardly leaked (if at all?), but my cider keg is now only about 1/5th full (it was a full keg).

I siphoned all the cider into some plastic jugs and ran them through a strainer a couple times to try to salvage what I could.

My questions are:

1. Any ideas why the CO2 tank is going through gas so fast? I know my first step is to check for leaks, which I'll do tomorrow. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious.

2. What could have caused all the cider to be fine and then all of a sudden fill up the keezer? Too much pressure?

3. This may be really stupid, but I just painted this thing about two weeks ago using some Rust-O-Leum Appliance Epoxy. As I was siphoning, I noticed some small paint chips from stuff that had scraped off what I just painted. Is it safe to drink the stuff I siphoned out of it if I strained it and got all the big stuff out?

Thanks.

 

[jaja]

Did you use thread tape on the back of the tap shanks? I've found that the most likely place to leak beer slowly.

And give everything a good spray with dish detergent water and look for leaks. Start with the seal from the reg to the tank. Then work down to connections and keg lids.

 

[malkore]

Room temp, your CO2 high pressure gauge will be 900psi
Inside a keezer, it'll only be about 400psi. Cold = less pressure form the liquid CO2.

But since you drained the cylinder in 10 pints, you have a leak for sure. check EVERY connection point, including disconnects, hoses on disconnects, keg lids, poppets, o-rings, safety release valves, regulator, etc.

WHen I replumbed my CO2 lines for the second time, I pressurized everything then shut off the regulator valve, but dind't hookup up the kegs. I let it sit overnight and made sure I still had 15psi in the lines. Then I knew any leaks would be coming from the keg or tap lines only, and leaking tap lines = leaking beer/cider so they are a lot easier to spot.

 

[devilishprune]

I had the same issue, you definitely have a leak somewhere. My problem was in the regulator. Do you have the plastic washer where your regulator attaches to the CO2 tank?

Make sure you have tape on all the NPT connections (not the flare fittings or the CO2 tank fitting).

 

[lotbfan]

my inebriated theory:

you have a leak in the co2 line to your cider keg.
co2 flowed to the keg, then leaked out once pressure was equalized.
there isn't a check valve between where the leak is, and the cider keg post.
you had the gas end hooked up to the liquid out post.

once the co2 was empty, back pressure from the carbed cider keg pushed it back out the line, until it hit the leak, and then it went all over your keezer. it stopped 1/5 full because all of the co2 had come out of suspension.

hows that?

 

[Munsoned]

My theory: two leaks. First could have been anywhere (and may still be anywhere), hence the lost CO2 without the spill. Second one: he has a leak at the "outbound" connector at the top of the cider keg. Gas is getting into the keg, and pushing the cider up the dip tube and out the keg connector (that would be going to the tap) down into the keezer. This, at least, has happened to me--lost a full keg of cider myself this way. Check the o-rings and the connectors (and get some keg lube--it's cheap), spray some soapy water (or starsan mixed water) to see if you can spot the bubbles. Also make sure the connectors at the top of the keg are screwed on tightly enough (but don't over tighten). In my instance I found that I had hand tightened my connectors, but forgot to use the wrench to get a good seal.

 

[lotbfan]

That is way more likely.