I just kegged my newest batch last night, a coconut porter. I hooked up the CO2 and beer lines and took a sample from the tap. I noticed immediately that there was hardly any flow out of the faucet, which isn't normal. My CO2 tank still has plenty of pressure. This is a new keg I just received from cornykeg.com. Any ideas as to what is going on? Coconut floats so it shouldn't be able to clog the dip tube. I don't really want to transfer to another keg unless that is the only way to get my beer flowing.
Liquid out line clogged?
- Thread starter MickeyD
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I've had yeast sediment/trub clog up the diptube before. Did you naturally condition this keg?
MickeyD
Well-Known Member
No I didn't naturally condition the keg. The amount of yeast and trub in the keg should be pretty limited.
I checked last night and now I can't even get a trickle of beer out of the keg. Any thoughts or suggestions?
I checked last night and now I can't even get a trickle of beer out of the keg. Any thoughts or suggestions?
shortyjacobs
Well-Known Member
You clogged it. I bet not all the coconut floated, or something along those lines....i've clogged tubes with VERY little hop matter before.
My advice. First, clean out the outtube. Get out a bottle of starsan. Vent the keg, and leave the pressure relief valve OPEN so beer doesn't come out of the diptube. Remove the post, (spraying everything liberally with starsan, and clean it out. Pull the diptube and clean it out if you want, but usually it's the poppet in the post that clogs. Starsan everything more and reassemble and check.
If this doesn't work, I've had material clog the quick disconnect poppet as well, (it makes it past the post poppet, and clogs the QD). Take this apart as well and clean it.
If your line then clogs up again, you have to get really radical. Sanitize your arm, pull the diptube almost all the way up, and put something to filter the beer over the end of the diptube. I prefer a 1 gal paint strainer, (sanitized in starsan), with a ziptie (starsanned), ziptied over the end of the diptube.
Just be really careful with tons and tons of starsan, and you should be fine. Remember to re-purge the keg whenever you reassemble it so you don't have oxygenation problems.
My advice. First, clean out the outtube. Get out a bottle of starsan. Vent the keg, and leave the pressure relief valve OPEN so beer doesn't come out of the diptube. Remove the post, (spraying everything liberally with starsan, and clean it out. Pull the diptube and clean it out if you want, but usually it's the poppet in the post that clogs. Starsan everything more and reassemble and check.
If this doesn't work, I've had material clog the quick disconnect poppet as well, (it makes it past the post poppet, and clogs the QD). Take this apart as well and clean it.
If your line then clogs up again, you have to get really radical. Sanitize your arm, pull the diptube almost all the way up, and put something to filter the beer over the end of the diptube. I prefer a 1 gal paint strainer, (sanitized in starsan), with a ziptie (starsanned), ziptied over the end of the diptube.
Just be really careful with tons and tons of starsan, and you should be fine. Remember to re-purge the keg whenever you reassemble it so you don't have oxygenation problems.
SweetSounds
Well-Known Member
You could start by hooking up an "Out" QD to your CO2 line, purge the keg, and fire CO2 in the out tube. If there is something in there, that should blow it out.
It won't prevent another clog in the future, but it's an easy quick fix...
It won't prevent another clog in the future, but it's an easy quick fix...
Fetus
Well-Known Member
This has successfully worked for me a number of times. I'm kind of lazy when it comes to avoiding trub when racking from primary into kegs. Usually the first 1-3 pints I pull will suck most of it out, but occasionally it does clog up. CO2 down the liquid out line, then let it sit for a bit.
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MickeyD
Well-Known Member
So I tried to blow some CO2 into the liquid line, but that didn't work even though I cranked up the pressure. I don't really feel like disassembling the keg so I am considering just transferring into another keg. Has anybody siphoned a partially carbed beer? Just wondering if that would be an issue or not.
It wouldn't be easy. You'd probably have a ton of foaming and oxidation. It's really easier to take off the "out" post and clean it than trying to siphon it. You're going to have to take it apart anyway before using it again, might as well just take off the post, clean it and stick it back on. It'll take you less than 5 minutes.
MickeyD
Well-Known Member
I took off the out post and dip tube and what do you know, they were filled with coconut. I cleaned everything out and replaced it. I am going to let the keg settle again before I try to get beer out. Thanks for the help/advice everyone.
shortyjacobs
Well-Known Member
+1
I've siphoned carbed beer in the past, (when I clogged my dip tube with hops once). It was a NIGHTMARE. The CO2 comes out of solution in the siphon, due to the fact that a siphon is inherently lower in pressure. The CO2 breaks the siphon, and in the end I had to just POUR it out Total mess, tons of oxidation, and I lost a lot of beer.
Here's what I did when I had to transfer a keg I dry hopped without a hop bag by accident the last time:
Remove the post, remove the poppet from the post, do the same on the keg I'm transferring to. Remove the poppets from both QDs. I put a 1 gal nylon paint strainer over the diptube of the keg I was transferring TO. I hooked up gas, shut the pressure relief valves, and slowly transferred to a new keg. A lot of hops came along with this, but they were caught by the nylon bag on the diptube I was transferring to. Once the transfer was complete, I pulled the diptube up and removed the nylon bag, (with all the hop matter in it), then reassembled the kegs and QDs with poppets again. The poppets are the choke points where stuff gets caught. The only way I found to transfer it was by removing them. By using the paint strainer, I ensured that my beer in my new keg had no hp matter in it, so it wouldn't clog up just like the old keg.
Good luck
MickeyD
Well-Known Member
So I had a miserable time attempting to transfer my beer to a new keg this evening. I lost the cap part to my liquid disconnect and couldn't effectively cap it. So I sanitized a piece of aluminum foil and gently placed it on top my hand to provide an alternative seal. As I transferred from the previously clogged keg into the new, I passed the beer through a muslin bag to catch the coconut that was being sucked through. After a while I got tired of pushing down on the liquid out post to create a seal. So I poured the beer through the muslin bag inside of a funnel leading into the new keg. Probably going to have some oxidation but at least the beer SHOULD flow.
