Overcarbed Keg Won't Pour

[RatCity]

I searched the forums and haven't found anyone with this exact problem. I accidentally left the pressure on both kegs in my kegerator at about 45-50 PSI for 24 hours.

Once I found out what happened, I cut off CO2, degassed, waited a few hours, then degassed again. I wanted to see how foamy it would pour (I know it's an obvious answer: very foamy) so I put 5 psi on the kegs and tried to pour - nothing.

Then I put 10 psi on the kegs and tried to pour - still nothing. Is this because the beers are so overcarbonated, they refuse to leave the keg? Or did I mess up my kegerator somehow?

Like most things, I'm guessing time will heal all. But part of me is concerned that I ruined my corny kegs or some part of my kegerator, or worst of all ... my beer!

Sorry to make my second post a cry for help, someday I'll be contributing recipes and general homebrew wisdom!

 

[Yooper]

That doesn't seem right! Is the beer possibly frozen at the bottom, so that it can't come up the diptube? When you filled the keg, was one diptube all the way to the bottom, the one connected to the "out"? Is your black disconnect hooked up to the "out"? And are you using picnic taps or faucets?

 

[nootay]

i wouldnt think you could carb a beer enough to keep it from pouring, but im pretty new to the kegging deal. are you sure you have the taps hooked up to the keg? seems kind of strange to me.

 

[Zen_Brew]

First off your kegs are rated for like 130psi, so you did no damage to them.

Secondly 45-50psi for about 24 hours may get you a bit overcarbed, but not by any insane amount. I often set a newly tapped keg at 30psi and let it sit for 36-48 hours to get the carb up quicker.

If the beer does not pour I would look at a couple of things.

- Did you dry hop in the keg? If so you may have hops clogging the dip tube where the beer gets drawn in

- Is the keg holding pressure? If the pressure were bleeding out of the keg around the seals it would not build up the pressure to dispense beer.

- Do you have the quick connects on the correct posts? If you accidentally reversed them, then your out connector would be above the level of the beer and unable to draw beer out. They are designed not to fit easily on the wrong connector, but not so much that with a bit of force you can't get them on.

- If you have a check valve after the regulator make sure it is in the correct position to allow co2 through. The long part of the valve should be pointed in the same direction as the lenght of the hose, not across the hose.

 

[bja]

I've had my beer lines accidentally pushed up against the cooling plate in the back of the kegerator and they froze.

 

[RatCity]

Thanks for all the fast responses...you guys are great!

I did a few tests last night: the kegs are connected to a kegerator, so I disconnected those and connected a picnic tap. Put a little CO2 on the kegs and sure enough - they poured out. So the kegs themselves were still working.

I degassed completely, put some CO2 on the kegs and let them sit a few minutes, then degassed again and heard the pressure build up in there. So no big CO2 leaks in the keg (it was still holding pressure).

So I narrowed it down to the line connecting the keg to the faucet. I took apart the faucet, unscrewing it from the shank, then unscrewed the individual pieces and let them soak in water - they were sticky. After about 5 minutes I put them back on, real tight, and voila - the keg pours!!

My guess is that the seal was broken and they weren't airtight, leaking pressure and thus not letting the beer come through. Maybe this was caused by so much pressure (45-50) put on them over 24? Could also be what bja said and the lines were simply frozen, they were pushed back against the cooling plate. While I fiddled with the faucets the door was open, and that could have thawed them out just enough.

Thanks again for the suggestions! Hopefully the thread can help someone else out who has similar issues.