clogged lines

[bpgreen]

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.

[ScrewyBrewer]

After dry hopping a batch of an IPA I brewed, in the keg, the pickup tube become so clogged with hop debris the beer stopped pouring. To clear it out I unscrewed the beer out ball lock, removed the pickup tube and cleaned it with a long pickup tube brush. After removing about an ounce of pellet hop 'sand' from the tube and reinstalling it still no beer. It wasn't until I unscrewed the beer out post again that I saw it was loaded with hop residue. Once the hops were cleaned out of it the beer stared flowing again.

Since then, after every keg is kicked, I give the beer post and pickup tube the same thorough cleaning. Now after every two or three kegs I run beer line cleaner through the kegs, beer lines and taps just to keep them clean and fresh.

[Dawg LB Steve]

I probably need to break down my kegs for a thorough cleaning. New kegs went right into rotation, used kegs and reconditioned (ready to go) would get broken down for sanitizing to my standards.

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[John Sand]

I have had frozen lines, and hop block. I'm pretty thorough with keg cleaning from fear of infection.

[Beer-lord]

I clean my keg completely every time. Only takes 10 minutes but I feel it’s worth it as I usually use lots of hops.

[RickBeer]

Nobody disassembles the faucets, cleans and sanitizes them?

[Beer-lord]

I clean the faucets and the lines each keg change.

[Beer-lord]

I clean the faucets and the lines each keg change.

[John Sand]

I don't dis-assemble the faucets or disconnects unless there is a problem. I do run line cleaner through almost every time.

[BlackDuck]

I flush mine with really hot water for a minute or three, then fill with PBW and let sit for a few minutes, then run Star San through them. Then put it away until the next keg needs the line. Never really had an issue doing it this way.


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[ScrewyBrewer]

Nobody disassembles the faucets, cleans and sanitizes them?

I pump 140F beer line cleaner, followed by 140F water, then room temperature StarSan through the two Perlick faucets and they never need to be disassembled for cleaning.

[Dawg LB Steve]

No faucet disassembly here either. Mix a gallon of beer line cleaner in keg and flush all the taps at once.

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[Kealia]

I also follow the hot water, PBW and then StarSan routine after each keg kicks. I don't dissemble and Perlick even says there is no need to because of their design. Until I have a problem with the faucets, I don't plan on messing with them.

I've only had clogged lines/post once and it was because I was dumb and keg-hopped commando.

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[ScrewyBrewer]

I also follow the hot water, PBW and then StarSan routine after each keg kicks. I don't dissemble and Perlick even says there is no need to because of their design. Until I have a problem with the faucets, I don't plan on messing with them.

I've only had clogged lines/post once and it was because I was dumb and keg-hopped commando.

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I tried to take my Perlicks apart to see if the internals needed cleaning and couldn't do it. Unlike other types of faucets Perlicks do not come apart for cleaning.

[bpgreen]

To close the loop on this, I finally killed the keg. I removed the tap and cleaned and pulled the tower from the kegerator. I blew out all of the lines and cleaned and sanitized everything with Star San before putting it all back together.

I think this is the first time I've removed the tap since I put the perlick in. There was a scary amount of gunk in and around the spring (probably due to the trub that flowed through with the last keg).

I tapped the next keg and it's running fine.