Tap won't dispense beer

[PADave]

@eddie - no secondary.

@EnglishAndy - I bet the problem was too much trub in keg getting further restricted by post and QD poppets / springs. Still, I will test those components after the keg kicks. Thank you!

@GPP33 - This morning, my GI system is not happy that I had three cloudy pints last night... TMI? LMAO

@PADave @MrPowers - Now I've got something else to worry about (flow control clogging). I'm not buying different taps now, not in the budget. So, now that the taps are in place and not going anywhere, what do I do if they clog?

Thanks!

Another thing I've done is take the tap apart and remove the flow control disk thing. It's a real simple design, and pretty easy to figure out. Pour a couple/few pints without the flow control till it clears up, then reinstall the disk back into the tap. Something to take apart and clean on a regular basis anyway, as it's pretty easy for hop debris to get stuck in there.

 

[GPP33]

@eddieNow I've got something else to worry about (flow control clogging). I'm not buying different taps now, not in the budget. So, now that the taps are in place and not going anywhere, what do I do if they clog?

Thanks!

I'd work on not transferring hop debris and trub into the keg, in which case clogged faucets shouldn't be an issue. There are many ways to go about doing this but careful transfers are really all you need. I'd imagine your beers will taste better without astringent plant matter in them too.

I don't think it's been said yet but DO NOT move that keg. As you pull beer you will create a divot where the junk washes out and you'll get clearer and clearer beer. You haven't flushed all of it out, just the stuff around the dip tube, move the keg and it'll redistribute and you'll get junk filled beer again.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Great advice, thank you!

Right, I need to do better transfers. The first place I was thinking of was at the kettle. I've been dumping full volume to fermentor since day one. Have a ball valve in kettle that I can use after a whirlpool, perhaps. But, what I'm investigating this very moment is a hop spider. I already have a kettle hop bag that's never been used. Figure that would be a perfect way to limit solids making it into the final beer.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Great advice, thank you!

Right, I need to do better transfers. The first place I was thinking of was at the kettle. I've been dumping full volume to fermentor since day one. Have a ball valve in kettle that I can use after a whirlpool, perhaps. But, what I'm investigating this very moment is a hop spider. I already have a kettle hop bag that's never been used. Figure that would be a perfect way to limit solids making it into the final beer.

While that will somewhat help it's the cold crashing that makes the difference. I always crash in the fermentor then transfer to the kegs. If that's not possible due to your process/ ferm chamber setup you can crash in your keg and discard the first few pours AND avoid ever moving the keg OR after discarding the first few pours transfer to another clean keg. crashing in the keg isn't ideal however because you very possibly will have a blocked connection again to deal with. Cheers

 

[ILMSTMF]

crashing in the keg isn't ideal however because you very possibly will have a blocked connection again to deal with. Cheers

Being new to having a refrigerated device to serve kegged beer from, I consider the beer sitting in the keg (within the keezer) as a secondary crash. I have a separate FC that I crash the beer in before transferring to keg. I will probably never do the initial / only crash in keg. ;-)

The reason I had the problem with tap dispensing this beer in the first place was because I transferred too much sediment during siphoning from bucket to keg. I unintentionally let the siphon inverter / sediment reducer get too close to the yeast cake among some other accidents that disrupted the cake. Beer is flowing now and lessons have been learned!

 

[GPP33]

As a point of reference I rarely cold crash in the fermentor and have never had a problem dispensing beer. The only time I cold crash in the fermentor is if I have over about 3 oz of dry hops. All the stuff from your kettle should settle out early in fermentation and ends up below the yeast cake. Put a mark on your siphon about an inch up from the end and once you start getting down to the end of the transfer make sure you don't dip it in any deeper than that line, when you start sucking yeast stop the transfer, you'll leave some beer behind, it's just part of the game when using a siphon. Move to spigots if you want to get every last drop.

 

[Blazinlow86]

As a point of reference I rarely cold crash in the fermentor and have never had a problem dispensing beer. The only time I cold crash in the fermentor is if I have over about 3 oz of dry hops. All the stuff from your kettle should settle out early in fermentation and ends up below the yeast cake. Put a mark on your siphon about an inch up from the end and once you start getting down to the end of the transfer make sure you don't dip it in any deeper than that line, when you start sucking yeast stop the transfer, you'll leave some beer behind, it's just part of the game when using a siphon. Move to spigots if you want to get every last drop.

Agreed it would take alot of dryhops to clog the connection although it's happened to a buddy several times lol. My comment about cold crashing was more so aimed at all around sediment free end product in the packaging. Cheers

 

[GPP33]

Agreed it would take alot of dryhops to clog the connection although it's happened to a buddy several times lol. My comment about cold crashing was more so aimed at all around sediment free end product in the packaging. Cheers

If you do lots of free floating dry hops cold crashing becomes a necessity if you want to get most of your beer and no hops.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Agreed it would take alot of dryhops to clog the connection although it's happened to a buddy several times lol. My comment about cold crashing was more so aimed at all around sediment free end product in the packaging. Cheers

If you do lots of free floating dry hops cold crashing becomes a necessity if you want to get most of your beer and no hops.

So, to prevent this / minimize the potential of this happening in the future, will continue to cold crash the fermentor. My dry hops are added to a fine mesh bag - I used to toss pellets in commando style.

For this particular recipe, 5 oz of pellet hops were thrown in loose during boil. Entire volume transferred from kettle to fermentor. No filtering, no whirlpool. 2 oz of dry hops in the fine bag. I ended up with just about 1 gallon of trub.
Another point I should make - the FV is in FC in the garage. I carry it up a flight of stairs to where the keg transfer happens. I do my best to minimize the disruption of the FV contents during it's voyage.

Anyway, the next to-do is creating that hop spider for kettle additions. I think that will help with sediment / potential clogs. I welcome your suggestions for other techniques worth considering, thanks!

 

[mongoose33]

As you consider a hop spider, you will want to take into account that the effect of the hops may be less than you're expecting.

I've used a hop spider; I ended up with less hoppiness than when they were just poured in "commando," as you say.

I have been more recently using a hop basket that hangs on the side of the boil kettle; it's better at hop utilization, but still not 100 percent. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072Q1G91R/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 I was able to position it so the boiling wort would bubble up through the basket.

The antidote to this is more hops. I'm probably moving away from that and will experiment with Cryohops and other ways of doing this including hop oil.

If you want to pay for shipping, I'll send you my hop spider.

 

[Blazinlow86]

You can try a hop spider. That being said I still feel that regardless of the amount of stuff that gets into the fermenter it should drop out with the cold crash. If you still getting alot of solids it could be your described method of moving the fermenter after crashing. I never move mine afterwards and transfer using pressure. Obviously if you spend 2 days getting everything settled than slosh it all around it's somewhat counter productive


That's a hoppy pale ale fresh outta the fermentor. I don't use a hop spider. Cheers