Empty CO2 Tank - No Pressure in Keg

[bhabermann]

Hello. This is my first post but I've been reading here for a few months now. I kegged my first beer about 1.5 weeks ago. I had it stored in a chest freezer and hooked up to co2 and a picnic beer tap. Everything seemed fine. I tested for leaks using soap and water and didn't see any bubbles. Fast forward to this past Saturday when I took on the challenge of building a collar for my freezer. Completed everything but the staining of the wood that day so decided to take it for a test spin. Again, everything seemed fine. beer was pouring fine. Sunday morning I took off the collar and started the staining and finishing of the collar. I had disconnected the beer line from the keg since I wasn't going to be using it for a few days. Fast forward to last night after I mounted the lid to the collar and finish it all up. I go to pour my first beer from my newly created gem and nothing comes out. I look at my CO2 gauge and it shows I'm empty. No biggie I thought so long as I had pressure in my keg. To check, I pulled open the release valve and no gas came out.

Luckily I had a friend who had an extra CO2 tank so I installed that, purged the O2. I sampled the beer. It tasted it a little flat but it might just need to Carb up again, right? Before I left to work this morning, I turned off the CO2 tank. When I come home, I'm hoping it will still show the 12 PSI or so I set it at. I know the beer will take some of that CO2 so maybe a little lower.

So here's my question. Does this mean that the leak is actually coming from the keg itself? Does this also mean O2 got into my beer and it is now oxidized and ruined? I don't know exactly when my tank ran out. I hadn't checked it since Sunday. When I turn off the gas at the CO2 tank, the gauge does go down to 0 (the side that shows how much CO2 is left in the tank itself). Is that normal?

Thank you!

 

[SGTSparty]

if you turned off the CO2 on the tank, your gauge should be at zero on your primary regulator. you should still have some pressure in your keg if there are no leaks in the line depending how long it sat at what PSI before you turned off the CO2. If you want to know if the leak is w/ the keg (seals and o-rings etc) them take you quick disconnects off once you have the keg pressurized. if after a day or two theres still pressure when you pull your pressure relief valve then its not your keg. If that works then hook your lines back up with the gas turned off (again to a pressurized keg). If the keg goes flat then the problem is in your lines.

 

[bhabermann]

Thank you! I'll give that a shot.

 

[bhabermann]

Just an update. It appears that my poppets were not going back down. At night or whenever I'm not around, I detach the out post because I have little ones and I don't want them accidentally poring beer all over the floor. Beer and CO2 were escaping from there. I also think I over tightened the posts as it was very hard to go the ball socket onto the posts. I swapped out the poppets, loosened the posts a bit and added keg lube and it appears I no longer have leaks.

 

[SGTSparty]

Great. Glad you got it figured out. Hopefully it didn't cost you too much in terms of wasted CO2 or wasted beer.