Newb kegging questions

[iv_hokie12]

I just picked up a couple of pin lock kegs from a friend that apparently came straight from coke. They still have sprite and coke in them anyway. I'm trying to drain them as quickly as possible without dumping it. Okay I dumped a little bit of it. But anyway a couple of questions.

1. I was under the impression that pin locks don't have pressure relief valves. With the ones I have one does and one does not have one. Is that normal?

2. I got all the CO2 out of the coke keg and tried to open it out of curiosity after I emptied about half the keg. I finally did get it open, but Ill be damned if it didn't take a lot of hand pressure. I even cut up the bottom of my hand. When I went back to seal I saw some coke kinda coming out of the seal before it seemed to seal up. Again are these things normal?

3. As it is soda, will I need to replace anything before kegging my beer or will a good soak in oxyclean or some other cleaner do the trick?

TIA

 

[JuanMoore]

1) Most pinlock keg lids don't have pressure relief valves, but since the lids for ball lock and pin lock kegs are interchangeable, finding either type of lid on either type of keg is fairly common.

2) Soda is sticky, and can do a pretty good job of gluing the lid shut. If the lid o-ring was covered in coke residue, it's only natural that some would squeeze out when you compressed it.

3) A good cleaning is a must, and you're on the right track with a hot oxyclean soak. Make sure you completely disassemble the keg to get everything clean, including taking the posts off, poppets out, and diptubes out. The posts and poppets may not be interchangeable depending on keg type/brand, so make sure you keep track of which is which and don't mix them up. It's also a good idea to replace all of the o-rings when you recondition a keg. They can hold flavors and then later impart them to your beer, especially if the kegs previously held root beer or dr pepper/mr pibb.

 

[iv_hokie12]

1) Most pinlock keg lids don't have pressure relief valves, but since the lids for ball lock and pin lock kegs are interchangeable, finding either type of lid on either type of keg is fairly common.

2) Soda is sticky, and can do a pretty good job of gluing the lid shut. If the lid o-ring was covered in coke residue, it's only natural that some would squeeze out when you compressed it.

3) A good cleaning is a must, and you're on the right track with a hot oxyclean soak. Make sure you completely disassemble the keg to get everything clean, including taking the posts off, poppets out, and diptubes out. The posts and poppets may not be interchangeable depending on keg type/brand, so make sure you keep track of which is which and don't mix them up. It's also a good idea to replace all of the o-rings when you recondition a keg. They can hold flavors and then later impart them to your beer, especially if the kegs previously held root beer or dr pepper/mr pibb.

Thank you very much! Are there any disassembly guides for those little pieces that you don't think about? I didn't even know that there were o-rings other than the lid o-ring. Also thanks for the info about the lids. After hearing that I was thinking about changing them all to lids with pressure release valves, but after putting some starsan on the lid with the valve I come to find that the valve is leaking. Well that is a quick turnoff to that type of lid.

 

[JuanMoore]

It's pretty simple, and there aren't a lot of parts, but it's nice to have a guide the first time. There are probably better reconditioning guides out there, but I like the exploded parts diagram and explanation of the differences in brands of this one-

http://www.dresselbrew.com/Keg_Info.htm