First Kegging, Partial Fail

[serialmonkey]

Hi all,

Been bottling for ages, decided to give kegging a try. 2 cornies, Micromatic regulator, 2-tap font.

Original plan was to hook it up at 200kpa for a week, but I got impatient and decided to give the force-carbination a good.

Good news: I have nice fizzy beer (and soda water in the 2nd keg)
Bad news: After rocking back and forward, I turned off the gas as per Ross's instructions and kept rocking - keeping a close eye on the regulator to ensure the pressure dropped to ~140. While keeping a close eye on the regulator, display I missed the fact that beer was entering my gas line and into the regulator :-(

So, it works, but I assume I've just caused myself some future drama.

Question 1: Can we suggest how much longer my regulator has to live considering it's a brand new dual-guage Micromatic ?
Question 2: What the h#$l did I do wrong ?

At least the beer tastes good ;-)

Thanks,
Mark.

EDIT: I should have mentioned, it was only a mil or two. Straight away I disconnected the kegs and pulled the release valve on the regulator hoping to blow it out.

 

[user 10246]

Every setup needs on of these will help you protect your reg.

Not sure how bad it'll be damaged though

 

[serialmonkey]

I know, I let myself be talked out of one by my LHBS :-(

"Those things leak, you don't want one of them".

Needless to say, I'm putting together an order now :-(

 

[chefo112233]

i dont understand how this stops backflow? it looks like a straight tube.... where on the line is it connected?

 

[unrealeous]

Would suggest if beer has entered your reg - you should disconnect it and give it a good rinse with water - and then connect it up to the gas and force some though to dry it out.

 

[tallie]

i dont understand how this stops backflow? it looks like a straight tube.... where on the line is it connected?

Assuming you're talking about the cutaway diagram in the catalogue link, it is just showing how the John Guest fitting works using a regular connector as an example; it is not a cutaway diagram of the non-return valve itself.

The non-return valve fitting (also called check valve) has a one-way valve between where the two hoses plug in to the fitting. The fitting is connected inline with the arrow pointing in the direction of the gas flow, ie, away from the regulator.

Cheers,
tallie

 

[zabond]

I personaly wouldn't rinse in water as you would be introducing more liquid into the reg,as a reg is basicaly a diaphram , adjustable spring & gauges,if you got just a small amount flow back I would just remove the low press gauge give the reg a blast of gas replace the gauge then another blast,if you got a reg full of beer remove both gauges then spray metho through the reg then dry with a hairdryer,beer usually stuffs the gauges first so you dont know if reg is working properly,I have repaired quite a few regs by just cleaning with metho and replacing gauges that have had liquids forced into the borden tube

 

[serialmonkey]

I'm going to remove the front dial this weekend to see what it looks like inside. I saw a drip or two of beer exit the regulator from 'somewhere' so I assume it has an overflow hole for cases like this.

I can handle the cleaning, I really would like to know what I did wrong though. From what I can tell I followed the 'Ross method' to the letter. I've obviosly mis-read something. To recap, it happened after I had turned the gas off and kept rocking while the low pressure guage stabilised.

 

[zabond]

when you turned the gas bottle off you should have also turned the reg off[screwed the adj right out as once the gauge drops to 140 you have set the reg to the higher press to force carb,so the reg being a reg opens the relief and vents, keg now at a higher press sends beer back to reg by turning off reg it cant vent,if this makes any sense

 

[serialmonkey]

I think it does Thanks !