leaking keg - can it be rescued

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drmick

leaking keg - can it be rescued

Post by drmick » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:03 pm

Hi All

did my first kit - a Woodfordes Wherry - and put most of it in a keg but also did a few bottles as well. Well the Keg is a top tap king keg and tried to get a glass out on friday and no pressure. So I used the cylinder and gassed it up and poured a glass and it looked OK but didn't taste too wonderful. Tried to take a pint off it just now (medicinal reasons - bad back) and no joy, absolutely no pressure. there is obviously a leak somewhere I am hoping its that I didn't put enough vaseline on the lid and its leaking out there. I opened one of the bottles I did and that tastes great if a little flat.

Do you think the beer in the keg is retrievable, I was thinking of possible taking the lid off, adding a bit more priming sugar, smearing lots of vaseline everywhere and putting it back in the warm for a week and then back into the garage to clear.

Any advice gratefully received

DrMick

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Ditch
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Re: leaking keg - can it be rescued

Post by Ditch » Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:36 pm

Try wiping some soapy (washing up liquid) water round the lid and the injector valve. See if it bubbles anywhere.

Lid leaking would likely be the seal. Valve leaking? Probably a fault with the rubber band that acts as pressure relief valve.

Is it a brand new keg? If not, any of the rubbers must be seen and treated as suspect (Replaced) before committing five gallons of hard earned to the thing.

Bromley Brewery

Re: leaking keg - can it be rescued

Post by Bromley Brewery » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:59 am

I had the same with a brew once:

If there's no pressure, then there's nothing to be lost by taking the top off and putting a bit more vaseline on the o-ring and retightening.

That sorted mine - it just wasn't done up tight enough.

BUT it was v hard to unscrew a week or two later - had to buy a cap spanner (Hamstead Homebrew sold me one).

drmick

Re: leaking keg - can it be rescued

Post by drmick » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:53 am

Hopefully it will all be OK, I was thinking if its gone through secondary fermentation then it should have lots of CO2 in the airspace so shouldn't have oxidised, and will be recoverable.

I did consider moving it from the keg into bottles and add another bit of sugar to reprime it but could just add a bit more sugar to the keg and cover everything in vaseline and screw the lid back on. The keg is brand new so shouldn't have any problems but reading a few of posts here thats no guarantee, so I think I will bottle it and hope for the best and then investigate the keg for leaks.

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