S30 elastic band failed

[andyisavinit]

I have just lost 23lts of beer. The pressure was too high and the tap failed on my budget pb. All over my garage floor !! And it was starting to taste lovely too.

I’ve been using the cheaper pb’s along side my king keg for years. The elastic band pressure relief valve has always worked. As, in the past, when I accidentally add too much pressure it squeals as the air comes out.

The band is old but I thought if anything it would get looser. The tap is obviously not a high quality tap either. But I’ve never had this happen before.

I thought the cap seal was leaking so every 2 days I gave it a squirt of gas. It obviously wasn’t and the pressure got so high that the bottom of the barrel expanded massively. To the point of it actually leaning over against the side of my fridge.

Gutted. I feel so silly for not checking the pressure. And just relying on the prv. I will NOT make that mistake again. Everyone be careful.

So I need to buy some pressure gauges. Seems the best way to monitor pressure. What gauges are people using?

[Eric]

None. Just crack open the tap and if there's any pressure, the beer should be sufficiently carbonated for ale. If the beer rushes out, excess pressure is relieved by moving the band.

[andyisavinit]

That’s exactly the way I’ve been operating for years. As the beer wasn’t ready to drink I wasn’t pouring beer. So was unaware of the excess pressure. I added too much by accident and wasn’t over concerned about doing so, expecting the prv to save me if it was too pressurised.

It only has to happen once

[Eric]

That’s exactly the way I’ve been operating for years. As the beer wasn’t ready to drink I wasn’t pouring beer. So was unaware of the excess pressure. I added too much by accident and wasn’t over concerned about doing so, expecting the prv to save me if it was too pressurised.

It only has to happen once

Indeed, once is enough.

I prime my plastic barrels and don't add gas until pressure is needed to pour a beer. Usually a barrel will be all but empty before gas might be needed.

Something was definitely wrong for the tap not to pour beer. I usually try the beer after a few hours when some carbonation will be present and every day from then on. Suggest you might do the same in future,

Good luck.

[IPA]

The answer to this is. Get to understand what gravity you should barrel/bottle at and do not add too much priming sugar.
Most importantly pay no attention to online priming calculators.

[charliemartin]

I suspect the issue is the basic keg itself. I had one which cracked on the seam. I think they are just not thick enough and over time they weaken and eventually break. I would have thought the PRV should have worked okay if the pressure was too high since it is just a rubber band. Not much to go wrong with that, although they do perish with time, which I would expect to cause a release of gas if anything.
I think it is worth paying the premium for King Kegs as they are far more substantial.

[alexlark]

2 tips with these PBs for a good sign of if they are holding pressure, or how much pressure they contain;

keep an eye on the bottom bowing out and also after a few days push the band on the cap down a bit and you should hear CO2 coming out. If you're not drinking the beer quick enough just keep an eye on those 2 things.

[MashBag]

Is there any chance the band could be sticky with beer? Sort of glued on effect?

[brewbrew]

Having spent a lot of money on S30 stuff (despite being advised on here not to go down that route), I have learnt the hard way that the S30 concept is unreliable and expensive in so many ways.

It might have a bit more or an initial outlay but a Corny keg with a proper regulator and a pub style CO2 cylinder (Adams Gas) will save money and yield much better results.

Personally, I'm surprised that the S30 stuff is still in the market.

[guypettigrew]

Having spent a lot of money on S30 stuff (despite being advised on here not to go down that route), I have learnt the hard way that the S30 concept is unreliable and expensive in so many ways.

It might have a bit more or an initial outlay but a Corny keg with a proper regulator and a pub style CO2 cylinder (Adams Gas) will save money and yield much better results.

Personally, I'm surprised that the S30 stuff is still in the market.

A word or two in support of the S30 system, if I may.

My King Kegs using the S30 system give me no problems at all. Like Eric says, check the beer after a day or so in the keg to assess the level of carbonation. You don't need to pour a pint, just a mouthful is enough to see what the carbonation is like and to check on how the beer is tasting.

I usually get well over half the keg drunk before any gas is needed, and that's without priming my beer. One S30 cylinder lasts me months!

Guy

[Eric]

Having spent a lot of money on S30 stuff (despite being advised on here not to go down that route), I have learnt the hard way that the S30 concept is unreliable and expensive in so many ways.

It might have a bit more or an initial outlay but a Corny keg with a proper regulator and a pub style CO2 cylinder (Adams Gas) will save money and yield much better results.

Personally, I'm surprised that the S30 stuff is still in the market.

A word or two in support of the S30 system, if I may.

My King Kegs using the S30 system give me no problems at all. Like Eric says, check the beer after a day or so in the keg to assess the level of carbonation. You don't need to pour a pint, just a mouthful is enough to see what the carbonation is like and to check on how the beer is tasting.

I usually get well over half the keg drunk before any gas is needed, and that's without priming my beer. One S30 cylinder lasts me months!

Guy

Yes, I agree with Guy on the S30 system. I've used it since, probably, the eighties, not entirely sure, but at least one of my kegs dates back to then. Yes, I've had problems, but none couldn't be overcome with some thought and effort. I don't want a large bottle of CO2 with gauges and lines and I don't want to buy corny kegs.

A plastic keg often finishes without any added gas, largely depending upon the particular yeast. LoDo is not part of my processes, no purging pf casks and barrels or anything else, for with active yeast present in the beer, any dissolved oxygen is swiftly absorbed by them. All my beers are naturally carbonated, the S30 bottle in use was bought in December 2020. Plastic barrels are locally available and cheap, so a spare serviced cap to hand usually resolves gas leakages.

My latest beer was brewed on the 6th of this month, the highly flocculant live yeast first pitched 13 months earlier, was added at 7PM. 72 hours later the yeast was cropped for the next brew, leaving a thin coating for protection, an earlier refractometer reading of 5.1 Brix, then corrected, suggested it to be close to racking gravity. From a hydrometer reading of 1011 (OG 1042), the beer was then allowed to cool naturally. Temperature was 10C on the 13th and a 40 pint plastic barrel filled together with 40g of homemade invert syrup (equivalent to circa 30g of converted sucrose), a further 3 litres was bottled directly.

That beer was carbonated and bright enough by last weekend for drinking, just a little too sweet, but it's fine now and potentially will be emptied without any added gas. The time I do need gas is when a lot of beer is drawn in short time, but for those occasions with warning will fill a pin or firkin and use a beer engine.