Leaking Keg help...

[joeydisasteroid]

I have two corny kegs that I have used previously for kegging and storing homebrews. I have just put my ale into the keg and went to charge it to dispense a small amount and try it. The ale started bubbling out of the top (Where the latch is). This concerns me because Im carbonating it with priming sugar and Im worried that its not holding pressure as the sugar and yeast does its job to carbonate my beer. What are my concerns here? Is the keg bad and in need of new rings. Is my ale ruined now that Im going to have to open the keg back up?

 

[JetSmooth]

How previously did you use this keg? Weeks? Months? First and cheapest thing to do is replace the o-rings. Did you sanitize well? As long as you did and you're careful, reopening and swapping the lid gasket out shouldn't probably ruin anything. If it was leaking while you thought it was carbing it probably didn't carb up. I suppose you could add more sugar or force carb.

 

[Priemus]

Seems the rings may have perished and need to be replaced, The beer is probably ok, but unless you can replace those rings immediatly Id consider racking into bottles straight from the keg.

 

[DustinHickey]

Sounds to me like you never sealed the corny with pressure. It usually takes 5 to 10 PSI in my cornies for the O ring on the keg hatch to seal. Remember that Cornies are designed to dispense soda (at high pressure ) so the O-rings are designed to seal and maintain seal at high pressure ).

That being said, next time you keg your beer, seal the lid and apply 10 psi or so until it seals properly.

This is at least what I assume you are refering too. If I were you I would seal it and let it sit for a two weeks since you first added the priming sugar and then tap it. If it's undercarbed you will just have to force carb it the rest of the way. ( set and forget )

 

[shortyjacobs]

Mine take 30-35 (sometimes 40) PSI to seat. If they won't seal at 40 psi, I swap out for a new lid O-ring, which does the trick. So hit that sucker with some PRESSURE.

 

[SweetSounds]

Keg lube does wonders too... It's a little gooey after the OxyClean hits it (After it's cached) but that's OK for me.

Apply a bead of keg lube to the o ring and lock the lid down. They seal right up for me.

I also bought a 4-lifetime supply of O-Rings from McMaster for all of $10 - If the rings are shot they just go in the trash.
How in the hell can they charge $5+ for a o-ring set at the LHBS?!? That's just insane when 100 post O-Rings cost $2.00

 

[abracadabra]

A couple of other suggestions try swapping the lids from the 2 cornies sometimes a lid will seal on 1 cornie but won't seal on another.

Another is to swing the lid 180* sometimes a lid will seal facing one direction but won't seal in another.

While I agree that sometimes it takes a good deal of pressure to seal a cornie if that is the case you have a problem. If i run into that problem I fix it! A corny should seal with minimum pressure and since I use my cornies as secondaries as well I want them to seal starting with 0 psi.

You really need something to test the cornies to make sure they seal before adding your beer if you don't have a CO2 set up you can test them using compressed air.

You can compress air into a cornie using a modified bicycle pump if you don't have access to a compressor. Using air to test will also help you to not waste CO2.

A little soapy water or Star-San mixture sprayed or brushed around the lid and posts will tell you if it's leaking or sealed by the presents or absence of bubbles once a small amount of pressure is applied

 

[Mateo]

Keg lube does wonders too... It's a little gooey after the OxyClean hits it (After it's cached) but that's OK for me.

Apply a bead of keg lube to the o ring and lock the lid down. They seal right up for me.

I also bought a 4-lifetime supply of O-Rings from McMaster for all of $10 - If the rings are shot they just go in the trash.
How in the hell can they charge $5+ for a o-ring set at the LHBS?!? That's just insane when 100 post O-Rings cost $2.00

Can you tell me where exactly you ordered them from and what specs you used? I have never heard of McMasters.

 

[SweetSounds]

Can you tell me where exactly you ordered them from and what specs you used? I have never heard of McMasters.

I'll have to search - It's hard to find but the links are here somewhere...

Just found the McMaster invoice...
Post O-Rings - $2.15 for 100: http://www.mcmaster.com/#9452k23/=82rccf
Dip Tube O-Rings - $1.96 for 100: http://www.mcmaster.com/#9452k172/=82rccu
Lid O-Rings - $12.69 for 10: http://www.mcmaster.com/#9452k218/=82rcc0

 

[3 Dog Brew]

I had similar problems a year or so ago. Likely from mixing up keg lids (I have 6 cornies currently). After loosing my 20lb CO2 bottle twice I decided to do something.

In order to match them back up and get them to seal properly, I filled them up with water and pressurized them to 15psi, them submerged them in a clean garbage can full of water. Follow the little bubbles until I could make them all stop. I also use Keg-Lube which I found online at Williams or Northern. Just do a web search.

 

[joeydisasteroid]

Well, I put pressure on them once the beers were in there and they both seated once there was enough pressure. I didnt realize that there needed to be pressure on the inside to properly seat the seal. So far (fingers crossed) things seem to be working. Thanks for the help!

 

[P-J]

I wrote a guide a while ago to address some of the issues with soda keg lids. You might find the information helpful.

Getting Your Keg Lid To Seal

HTH.