How dangerous is it to open a pressurized keg?

[ddeantodd]

So I've done something stupid, and any help that you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Long story short (TL;DR): I racked 5 gallons of a 1-year old sour beer in a corny keg with 10 lbs of fruit with no way to vent CO2. I'm also not sure which post (pin lock keg) is the gas and which one is the liquid because I may have switched them during cleaning. Pressing the "gas" out poppet releases a slow bubbly, foamy liquid output. Pressing down on the "liquid" out poppet released the same foam at one point, but now nothing. Either or both may be clogged with fruit gunk. I have no idea how much pressure is still left in the keg, and I'm not sure how to de-pressure it safely. Help!

Long Story:

I brewed a sour beer back in January 2015 and let it ferment for about a year in a carboy. About 6 weeks ago, I transferred it to a pin-lock keg and added 10 lbs of berries and cherries (5g batch). What I didn't do is put a blow-off hose or air-lock on the keg. In fact, I purged the O2 out and put a quick burst of CO2 on top of the beer, because I'm an idiot. My thought was that it would make sure that the O2 was out.

And then I left it to sit for the last 6 weeks. It wasn't until I decided to take a gravity sample that I realized that the bugs and yeast would ferment the fruit and produce more CO2 and I had no vent out.

So I pushed the gas in poppet to release pressure, and instead I got a face full of red fruity sour beer (along with everything around me in a 3 foot radius. After cleaning up, I thought it could be that I switched the gas/liquid tubes because I had taken the keg apart for cleaning right before I racked the beer into it. So I pressed the liquid side and got foamy discharge.

I tried hooking up the liquid out to the tap and opening it up, and some foam came out slowly for a few minutes, but then nothing. At this point, pushing on the liquid side poppet produces nothing.

I hooked up a gas outlet to the "gas" side, and it produces a slow, but continuous bubbly foamy output.

At this point, I'm not sure if I have the gas/liquid tubes in the right posts, I'm not sure if one or either is clogged with fruit gunk, and I have no idea how much pressure is left in the keg.

Any ideas or advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. I'm at a loss at what to do next besides pop the lid and hope for minimal explosion and loss of life.

 

[blackbeer]

use a wrench to slowly unscrew one of them and release the gas. that way when it sprays it won't come out in a stream but just bubble around the taps. still going to be a mess though.

 

[505-Brewer]

Use CO2 to add some more pressure. If you listen carefully you should be able to hear which one bubbles through the liquid vs fills the headspace. Should also temporarily dislodge any blockage. I had cacao nibbs clog my beer out line once so I tilted the keg and transferred out of the gas in line pushing w CO2 through the beer out side.

You could also crash cool the beer causing CO2 to enter the beer: may or may not help.

Either way the wrench idea above sounds good.

Did you ever try to remove the lid? Sounds like you vented it to me by your description. If its under any pressure it wont push in.

 

[ddeantodd]

Did you ever try to remove the lid? Sounds like you vented it to me by your description. If its under any pressure it wont push in.

That was the last thing I tried. I had hoped that based on the fact that not much was coming out of either post that it wasn't under much pressure. I flipped the clip/lock, and tapped the lid a few times with a mallet and it didn't budge. I tried several times with more and more force with no luck. That's why I think its still under some pressure.

The wrench idea may be the way to go, I hadn't thought of that. Hopefully I can loosen it just enough and slowly enough that it doesn't become a flying metal projectile.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[ddeantodd]

use a wrench to slowly unscrew one of them and release the gas. that way when it sprays it won't come out in a stream but just bubble around the taps. still going to be a mess though.

I hadn't thought of this, worth a shot. Thanks!

 

[ddeantodd]

use a wrench to slowly unscrew one of them and release the gas. that way when it sprays it won't come out in a stream but just bubble around the taps. still going to be a mess though.

Success! I was able to unscrew the posts to relieve the pressure with minimal mess thanks to clogged up tubes (both!).

Thanks for the advice, I might be able to save this beer yet!

Cheers!

 

[max384]

Sounds like it is time to transfer to a fresh keg... and leave the fruit behind! You don't want fruit, hops, etc. in your keg. It is bound to clog it up, as you have found out.

 

[krackin]

I've never seen anything so lame as this, except Hillary's noise.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I would definitely be looking to transfer the liquid out. I don't know if you could wrap a Muslin bag around an auto siphon and transfer it out with minimal oxygenation and minimal clogging.

But I've seen people using some type of hop screen/filter in the keg that's the entire length of the dip tube. You could place the new kegs dip tube in that before siphoning.

Considering how much fruit you have in that keg you'll never get a decent pour if one at all.

A normal batch of beer whatever but a year sour!!! Do whatever it takes hahha

 

[ddeantodd]

I plan on bottling, so I transferred to a carboy to start clearing the fruit out of the beer. Thankfully it wasn't a carbed up foamy mess. As long as the gravity doesn't move in a week or so I'm going to bottle it up.

 

[BeardedBrews]

To the question of danger, basically 0. You can't really get the lid out of a soda keg with pressure in it

Sounds like you've got it figured out.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Sounds delicious! Enjoy