PRV fix on full carbed keg

[Brewer dad]

I experienced my first major CO2 leak issue on a Timothy Taylor Landlord clone this past week. Transferred and setup the keg to burst carb at desired PSI, came back a few hours later to an empty CO2 tank. Life got in the way and took me a week to get it refilled(I live in the country and it’s 40min drive to my source).

Today I hook everything back up, and I hear a leak at my PRV. These happen and I find if I play with it I can get it to seat properly. This time I briefly saw bubbles when I initially pulled it and am having trouble getting the leak to audibly stop. I did slightly overfill the keg at transfer so I assume that’s where the bubbles at from, though I backed off about a half a beer when I overfilled.

Obviously I should replace the PRV, but seeing as the beer is in the keg and apparently per the sample I pulled it is nicely carbed, does anyone have any fixes that don’t involve opening things up? I’ve purged a number of times to try to blow anything out. It’s quiet for now but I’m leery about leaving the gas on.

On a sidenote this is a lovely beer. I was looking for recipes that use Wyeast Yorkshire yeast and gave this one a shot. Fairly simple recipe and at a month is tasting quite nice.

 

[Deadalus]

Closed transfer to a purged keg, then you could fix the prv.

 

[Bramling Cross]

If you don't have an extra keg, a bit of oxidation on a porter isn't the end of the world. In fact, there's an argument to be made that it'll be more authentic with a bit of oxidation. If you can't rack into another keg, I'd order the part, pull the lid and fix the issue, then vigorously purge the keg.

Frankly, I wouldn't get too worked up about this, especially because it's a porter. Your porter will be a bit different, but it'll still be a very good porter. Frankly, too much of modern homebrewing literature focuses on the absolute perfect--as if that ever happens routinely. Like you, most of us live in the real world, and we have to deal with dumb stuff like this.

With that in mind, you already know you need PRV parts, so go ahead and order them. Then relax, read what others have to say, then think about it. Maybe you can just get by if you grease your PRV from the outside? Do what makes sense for you with the resources you have available, then learn from this mistake. You did the best you could this time and you'll be better prepared next time. That's a great outcome! You learned something, right?

I'm a hardcore LODO guy, I strive to make the best beer every time I brew...but sometimes dumb stuff happens at the worst possible time. A big part of brewing is trying to overcome this dumb stuff that shouldn't happen in a perfect world.

This is why I keep spare parts for everything in my brewery. I've been brewing for thirty years and I assure you, you can't trust anything unless you have a spare part available.

That said, once you actually do have spare parts for everything, nothing ever breaks.

That's homebrewing for you...

 

[Brewer dad]

Thanks all! The keg is now holding pressure so I believe whatever gunk was up in there got blown out. As recommended I am going to change out the valves just to be safe. If it really came to it my last resort would have been to either transfer or change the lid out real quick.

 

[balrog]

If the PRV can be unscrewed (some of mine cannot, most can), unscrew it, cotton swab the seat, check the o-ring on the piston for cracks, keg lube it, and re-insert it.

 

[Whisky River]

If it were me, I would only leave the co2 hooked up when pouring from that keg. If it’s already carbed up it shouldn’t need more co2 and if it does leak it won’t drain your whole tank again