Kegging; beer pouring too slow

[NotSoNew2Brew]

So, I have had a kegerator set up dialed-in for a long time. Lately an older gentleness sold me a boat load of brewing equipment including 7 corny kegs, 8 carboys, supplies, a refrigerator with 4 perlick taps attacked already, chest freezer, temp control....you name it, I got it.

Well, I was filling a keg he gave me, and my dip tube seemed to rest on the bottom of the keg, but since it didn't prevent me from tightening the in and out attachments, I tightened the in and outs, and filled. I am guessing with so much equipment he may have put wrong dip tube in that particular keg.....why?

I have 2 kegs pouring equally, while the one I just filled is pouring way slower.

Can a dip tube touching bottom slow the pour and is it ok to not dismantle, shorten, then put it all back together?

I'm pretty sure that is the case but just checking...... Btw, I did use gelatin to fine beer in the keg...FYI

 

[day_trippr]

Definitely, yes. As the cause of foamy or trickle pours it's an outlier, but I've read at least a couple of instances where the out dip tube was slammed against the keg bottom...

Cheers!

 

[NotSoNew2Brew]

My bigger question is that is it necessary to dismantle and put back together or is my only side effect a slow pour?

 

[day_trippr]

You don't actually need to tear down or even empty the keg to remove the out dip tube.

If you don't care to live with the slow pours, what you might want to do is remove the gas connection from the keg, depressurize it and unlatch the lid (but keep it loosely in place). Then remove the out post and poppet and pull the out dip tube. Then, find a matching keg in your new collection, and use that to check the fit of the tube.

It may be that the tube has been bent so the end is not landing in the small well in the center of the keg, in which case you could reform the tube to fit the matching keg, then sanitize the tube and reinstall it in your filled keg...

Cheers!

[edit] Another thing...some kegs use a straight dip tube that picks up from a well at the edge of the keg bottom, while the majority use a bent dip tube that picks up from a center well. The underside of the keg bottom for the former will show where the well is, while the latter will be nearly flat. If you used a straight tube on a keg meant for a center pickup, or an angled tube on an edge pickup, that could definitely be a problem. So you can check your keg to see which type it is, then check your other kegs to find a tube that matches the keg, then decide if you want to swap or not.

I wouldn't shorten the dip tube before getting all the kegs fitted properly...

 

[b-boy]

Worst case you could trim the dip tube a little.