Pressure transfer, conical to corny... beer not flowing

[KookyBrewsky]

I am just finishing my first carb-stone force carbonation.

My beer is at 40F. I purge the corny of oxygen after pumping it with CO2, it is at 0 PSI. I attach all the proper hosing and ball locks, pressurize my conical to 5PSI, open the racking port and nothing happens... I mean nothing. Nothing flows into the keg, a little bit of beer drips into the hose but never quite reaches the ball lock.

I cannot seem to conceive of what is going on. This is not my first time pressure transferring, but it is my first time carbonating in the conical and cold crashing, I just don't understand what to do. I have wasted so much CO2 trying to get a tiny flow of beer from my conical to corny and nothing works.

Any ideas?

 

[Beer666]

Are you using a spending valve on your keg. I would try a closed transfer and up the pressure.

 

[ITV]

I hook a gas hose up to connect the corny to the fermenter. Both should be at the same pressure. If I want to "bump start" the flow, I just pull the pressure relief on the corny for a second.

 

[KookyBrewsky]

I hook a gas hose up to connect the corny to the fermenter. Both should be at the same pressure. If I want to "bump start" the flow, I just pull the pressure relief on the corny for a second.

I know how to do it in general, it is not my first time CPT, but it is my first time doing all of these extra bits like actual glycol temp control, cold crash, force carb with a carb stone, pressurizing my conical... all of that seems to have done something to where I cannot get a flow from my conical to the keg.

There is no blockage in dip tube, I just checked, poppet seems fine, took it out and reseated it, still nothing.

 

[KookyBrewsky]

Are you using a spending valve on your keg. I would try a closed transfer and up the pressure.

Yes I have the gas post (in) connection to a ball lock and bare end in blow off bucket.

 

[Pacific Electric]

If you disconnect the hose from the racking valve to the keg - will it drain/flow if you drain it to another vessel?

Trying to isolate where the blockage may be. I’ve had stuck dip tubes in kegs when I got too much hops in the line during transfer.

 

[Niatras]

Have you tried raising pressure above you carbonation level?

 

[KookyBrewsky]

This batch was pretty much ruined.

It went perfectly until all the new things I have never done. First, I didn't realize I had to tighten the lid until it feels like it's about to break, super tight according to Spike. So at some point during carbonation I had a leak from the lid. After that it all went south. Temp rises, couldn't get it to transfer. I have about 1/3 full keg from just doing a gravity transfer.

Really no idea what went wrong but I wasted probably $100 on this batch, CO2 and organic ingredients. Hopefully I get it right next time. Absolutely using a hop bag next time and also adding a bit more volume to account for such massive trub.

 

[Niatras]

Sorry to hear that. Better luck next time.

 

[ITV]

I would suggest next time to temporary hook up CO2 to the beer line to see if there was a blockage. If there was a blockage work you way backwards to find it.

I never had to crank on the lid band clamp on my Spike, only hand tight. I find that if the lid gasket is on backwards it will leak.

If you dry hopped your batch without a hop bag, I would suggest a filter between the dump valve and the gas hose.

This Link seems to be popular.

 

[Pacific Electric]

This batch was pretty much ruined.

It went perfectly until all the new things I have never done. First, I didn't realize I had to tighten the lid until it feels like it's about to break, super tight according to Spike. So at some point during carbonation I had a leak from the lid. After that it all went south. Temp rises, couldn't get it to transfer. I have about 1/3 full keg from just doing a gravity transfer.

Really no idea what went wrong but I wasted probably $100 on this batch, CO2 and organic ingredients. Hopefully I get it right next time. Absolutely using a hop bag next time and also adding a bit more volume to account for such massive trub.

Just curious, what was your dump “process” like pre-transfer? Do you have a racking cane and did you turn it up to ensure you were clear of any trub / hop matter?

 

[Bobby_M]

The first thing I would have done was to pull the black QD off the keg and depressed the poppet in the QD to see if beer would flow. My guess is that some chunk of something clogged either the QD or keg post poppet.

To go all the way back though, you were not going to have much success moving carbonated beer into the keg the way you were doing it anyway. If the beer is carbed to 15 psi, you need to put a spunding valve on the keg's gas in post and set the vent to 15 psi (or close) and then put 15 psi on to the top of the fermenter. The whole system needs backpressure maintained and a hose going into a bucket of starsan is not anywhere near enough.

 

[jerrylotto]

I have a gas post on my fermenter so I first connect gas to gas so the pressure is always equalized. Then I connect liquid out to liquid out and use gravity to transfer by raising the fermenter above the destination keg.