clogged lines
Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 12:35 am
I wasn't sure what to use as the subject, but settled on clogged lines. But there's a lot more that goes into it.
tl;dr: trub clogged the lines and I had to rekeg one keg.
I travel fairly regularly and long ago bought a perlick tap because the tap that came with the kegerator would often get stuck if I was out of town long enough.
I was recently gone for a week and a half. When I got back, beers poured normally, but the next morning, the bar towel was full of beer. So I started putting a glass under the tap. It didn't seem to be turning off completely, which is odd. I figured I'd wait until the weekend and take care of it.
The other night, the glass overflowed. So I disconnected the keg and cleaned things up. When I reconnected the keg, nothing came out.
I took the tap apart and it was full of gunk. My first thought was that I deserved it because I didn't do a good cleaning between kegs. So I hooked up a keg full of water and tried to force that through. Nothing. So I hooked the beer keg up again and after a while, got a trickle. So I hooked up the keg with water (actually water+oxiclean) and ran it until it ran clear. Then I hooked up the keg again and it was barely a trickle.
I finally realized the problem. I bought a bunch of expired HME cans and brewed with them. They tended to under attenuate, but continue to ferment after kegging (I'm glad I keg; if I were still bottling, I think I'd have had a few bombs, or at least really overcarbonated beers). This particular batch had fermented enough in the keg that it created enough trub to clog the tube in the keg.
I cleaned the lines thoroughly and transferred the contents to another keg and all is well. All that remains is making sure that the first keg is clean enough that I can fit it Sunday.
tl;dr: trub clogged the lines and I had to rekeg one keg.
I travel fairly regularly and long ago bought a perlick tap because the tap that came with the kegerator would often get stuck if I was out of town long enough.
I was recently gone for a week and a half. When I got back, beers poured normally, but the next morning, the bar towel was full of beer. So I started putting a glass under the tap. It didn't seem to be turning off completely, which is odd. I figured I'd wait until the weekend and take care of it.
The other night, the glass overflowed. So I disconnected the keg and cleaned things up. When I reconnected the keg, nothing came out.
I took the tap apart and it was full of gunk. My first thought was that I deserved it because I didn't do a good cleaning between kegs. So I hooked up a keg full of water and tried to force that through. Nothing. So I hooked the beer keg up again and after a while, got a trickle. So I hooked up the keg with water (actually water+oxiclean) and ran it until it ran clear. Then I hooked up the keg again and it was barely a trickle.
I finally realized the problem. I bought a bunch of expired HME cans and brewed with them. They tended to under attenuate, but continue to ferment after kegging (I'm glad I keg; if I were still bottling, I think I'd have had a few bombs, or at least really overcarbonated beers). This particular batch had fermented enough in the keg that it created enough trub to clog the tube in the keg.
I cleaned the lines thoroughly and transferred the contents to another keg and all is well. All that remains is making sure that the first keg is clean enough that I can fit it Sunday.