I blew up a mini-keg

[andre the giant]

I checked my IPA and it was down to around 1.013 and I only had a couple weeks to go before the party where I was going to unveil the brew, so I added 3 oz of Belgian candi sugar (I didn't have any corn sugar, I completely dissolved it in boiling water before adding it) to 5 gallons of beer. I gently stirred the beer to evenly distribute the priming sugar, then put the bung in and let it go. A week later, I found that one of the two minikegs of IPA was leaking. I couldn't figure out where from. I guess from the spigot?

Several days later, (yesterday) the leaky one bulged out on the top and bottom. I went ahead and opened the spigot to let the pressure out. All that came out was foam. Eventually, I just drained the whole thing and threw the ruined mini-keg in the trash.

Meanwhile, the other mini-keg of IPA is fine, as are the two mini-kegs of Blueberry ale. I did take the precaution of putting all three kegs in the beer cooler to maybe calm things down a bit if they're over-carbed.

I bottled some of each batch, by adding more sugar after the kegs were filled, and bottling. So far, these bottles have been undercarbonated, but still have a bit of sweetness to them, so I imagine they will be pretty good. (hell, they've only been in the bottle/keg for 2 weeks.)

My hypothesis is that I didn't mix the priming sugar well enough in the IPA batch, and that the doomed minikeg got the brunt of the sugar. Its also possible that the keg was defective from the start, although I don't think that would account for the excessive foam-fest when I opened the spigot.

In the event that the other mini-kegs are over pressurized, how do you release the pressure, while saving the beer?

 

[david_42]

Get the keg as close to freezing as you can without actually freezing it, a waterbath with ice works well; then let the pressure off.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Do you have the brown rubber with tan plastic in the center that get pushed out by the tap, or do you have the black rubber with the red plastic that turns to allow you to gravity feed out the bottom?

If you have the latter just turn the red knob (for lack of a better term) a bit to release some of the pressure.

Did you say you primed your brew then added more sugar into the kegs?

Kegged beer takes LESS sugar than normal. Around 1-2 TBS per keg will do it. I've also done 3 before with good results.

This is one reason why I don't prepare my priming sugar beforehand. If I decide to keg I put straight beer into the kegs then add sugar. Whatever's left in the bottling bucket gets primed for the bottles.

Simple math for priming is 5 oz for 5 gals., 2.5 oz for 2.5 gals. Simple enough?

 

[andre the giant]

My kegs have a bung on the top that have a center that punches out when you insert the tap, they also have a spigot on the bottom that you pull out and rotate to gravity feed.

Here's how I primed the kegs. I added 3 oz. sugar to the entire 5 gallon batch. I filled the kegs with that, sealed them up and set them aside. Then I added a bit more priming sugar to the remaining beer for bottling. (because bottling requires more sugar than kegging does) The kegged beer has the ratio of 3 oz per 5 gallons, whereas the bottled stuff has around 5 oz. per 5 gallons. does this make sense? Regardless, I didn't add any more sugar to the kegs. Once I sealed them up, they stayed sealed.

Do I flip the keg over when opening the spigot to relieve pressure? I'd like to blow the CO2 out of the headspace, not beer out of the bottom.

 

[david_42]

Position the spigot as high as you can when releasing pressure.

Maybe you should do this outside.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Since you only outlet is the gravity tap at the bottom and you want to relieve pressure I would CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY tip them upside down. Then let it sit for a while before opening up the tap.

Or you could submerge it in a tub of water and do the same thing or lay it on its side with the tap on top (up position). The outward pressure will ensure nothing gets into the keg (and you won't have any slashing going all over your ceiling/floor/walls.

 

[andre the giant]

Good ideas. I'm going to do this to all three remaining mini-kegs when I get home. They've been sitting in the beer fridge chilling out since last night. Hopefully they don't shoot excessive amounts of foam, but at least they haven't bulged out. I did notice that a few dents that existed before kegging are no longer there. Hmmmmmm.

 

[homebrewer_99]

You know if you don't have to lose a lot of beer (just some air pressure) maybe you should just leave the kegs alone in a cold fridge and when it comes time to drink let the beer flow into a pitcher. The foam can settle out there.

 

[Radarbrew]

Position the spigot as high as you can when releasing pressure.

Maybe you should do this outside.

FILM THAT!:rockin:

 

[andre the giant]

Update...

The three remaining kegs were fine. The other batch of IPA was a bit foamy, but not explosively so. I did tilt the kegs back and barely open the spigot at the "bottom" of the keg to release the pressure. There was no mess, no hassle, (but I did do it outside.... Just in case )

I think the problem came from rushing the IPA along. When I think back on it, I seem to remember taking the FG reading on the IPA but not adjusting for the temp. And I think the temperature was around 78-80 degrees. I'm thinking the IPA didn't have enough time in the secondary to complete its fermentation, so it did so in the keg. That, along with the added sugar, caused overpressurization. I normally give the beer about 3-5 weeks in the secondary, but cut that to around 1 week because the party was rapidly approaching. I knew I was taking a risk. The blueberry ale turned out perfect though. The carbonation was dead-on.

Not to worry. The party was a success, the beer was good, three mini-kegs, two growlers, and at least a case of bottles of homebrew were consumed by the seven of us. This doesn't even include the pitchers of BL that were consumed when we went to our old college hangout. Everyone had a good time.