Keg blockage

[raybies]

Last night, I went to the garage to pour myself a nice, hoppy DIPA. Nothing came out.
I’d been drinking it for a week, so it should’ve had ~15 L remaining.

• Checked the beer line — it was fine.
• Reassembled everything — still nothing.
• Depressurized the keg.
• Disassembled the valve — a few hop particles came out.
• Reassembled — still dry.
• Disassembled again — liquid flowed freely.
• Reassembled — again, nothing.

I inverted the keg (liquid dip tube facing up), pressurized it — CO₂ flowed from the end. So far, so good.
But once I set the keg upright, the CO₂ flow stopped, and still no liquid.
I pressurized to 60 PSI and added a vacuum pump — still blocked.
This whole mess took 88 minutes. I lost most of the keg’s contents across the fridge, the floor, and myself — and I never even got the damn beer.

What the hell am I supposed to do? Every time I remove the valve liquid flows freely, every time I close it nothing comes out, but gas comes out.
I was so angry I almost had a wrecking moment.

 

[livo]

I can't follow what you did. First thing I would have done would be to connect an open-ended line, or party tap / beer gun, to the beer post and fed into a glass or jug. This would tell you if it's the line and tap or the keg itself. Go from there. I assume you decided the problem was in the keg.

No way you were drinking that beer last night after what you did inverting the keg and applying 60 psi.

60 psi should have popped the safety PRV. Did it? Too much pressure could possibly prevent the beer line disconnect from pushing the poppet valve spring sufficiently to open the valve. I had a similar problem at Christmas with my half kegs and found the previous owner had installed O/S poppet O-rings that would not stay open.

Have you used this keg before?

If you could pressurise it with CO2 via the Gas In post and depressurise it via the PRV, there was no problem there. All you really needed to do was take the Beer Out post off and inspect / clean. If that didn't work after you found the hop particles, I would have then pulled the dip tube to see if it was clear.

You should have been able to get the beer to flow without destroying the contents.

 

[Dave70]

a few hop particles came out.

There's ya problem. Maybe.

Or at least all I can think of as I had a similar thing happen after I keg hopped using a hop sock.
Once they (hop material) clump around the pickup tube, its all over. You pretty much need let it settle out and decant to another keg.
By then, the beer will be nice and aerated and likely half flat, so you'll need to re carb and consume quickly before it tastes like a glass of cardboard.

Or, you can remove the dip tube and cut about an inch off the end.

 

[raybies]

Problem solved — the beer went bad or turned weird or who knows what happened.
Dave, I reckon you're on the money, but something strange happened:

1. The beer had 120 g of hops.
2. 60 g were dry-hopped.
3. No hops were ever introduced into the keg. I have a conical fermenter with a 1.5" Tri-Clamp lid, and I use a semi-pressurized transfer using a floater.
4. I’d been drinking the DIPA for a week — right up there as one of the best I’ve ever brewed flavor wise.
5. It was hazy but had zero suspended particles and was full-bodied.
6. Because it was so good and rich, I figured I could make it PERFECT by adding 1.5 L of filtered water to balance it out. I added 1.5 L to a 2 L mini keg and pressure-transferred it.
7. I then set the temperature to 1 °C (it was 2 °C before), gave it 2 days, and that’s when the saga started.

So today, after more failed attempts to get liquid out, I came to the same conclusion: filter the beer during the transfer.
The only workable option was using a small brew bag as a filter. I transferred the ~7 L that was left, and this is what got filtered out.

How the **** did that get into the keg?

If I saw one of you post this, I’d be 95% convinced the guy was tripping and either added hops directly to the keg or accidentally transferred them from the fermenter.
Honestly — if this isn’t some weird hallucination and I’m actually typing this — no hop solids ever went near that keg. And what came out looks like way more than 60 grams!
The beer is completely ruined. But **** me, this is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me in brewing.


I tasted the wrecked batch — it’s similar in flavor, but now has a strong spicy character and looks like pale mud.


Here’s the keg with the valve removed. The ball-lock post for the connecting tube was also taken off, but nothing would come out — just a tiny bit of movement.

 

[Ballaratguy]

Problem solved — the beer went bad or turned weird or who knows what happened.
Dave, I reckon you're on the money, but something strange happened:

1. The beer had 120 g of hops.
2. 60 g were dry-hopped.
3. No hops were ever introduced into the keg. I have a conical fermenter with a 1.5" Tri-Clamp lid, and I use a semi-pressurized transfer using a floater.
4. I’d been drinking the DIPA for a week — right up there as one of the best I’ve ever brewed flavor wise.
5. It was hazy but had zero suspended particles and was full-bodied.
6. Because it was so good and rich, I figured I could make it PERFECT by adding 1.5 L of filtered water to balance it out. I added 1.5 L to a 2 L mini keg and pressure-transferred it.
7. I then set the temperature to 1 °C (it was 2 °C before), gave it 2 days, and that’s when the saga started.

So today, after more failed attempts to get liquid out, I came to the same conclusion: filter the beer during the transfer.
The only workable option was using a small brew bag as a filter. I transferred the ~7 L that was left, and this is what got filtered out.

View attachment 125223

How the **** did that get into the keg?

If I saw one of you post this, I’d be 95% convinced the guy was tripping and either added hops directly to the keg or accidentally transferred them from the fermenter.
Honestly — if this isn’t some weird hallucination and I’m actually typing this — no hop solids ever went near that keg. And what came out looks like way more than 60 grams!
The beer is completely ruined. But **** me, this is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me in brewing.


I tasted the wrecked batch — it’s similar in flavor, but now has a strong spicy character and looks like pale mud.


Here’s the keg with the valve removed. The ball-lock post for the connecting tube was also taken off, but nothing would come out — just a tiny bit of movement.
View attachment 125224

I had a similar problem I put a liquid qc on a gas line and fed gas through the pickup dip tube. Solve the problem for a few pours then it blocked again
I ended up de gassing the keg but left a little pressure in the keg and then removed the liquid post and dip tube and put a gas dip tube in and a floating dip tube onto that (not easy to do that while in the keg)
At least I then got no junk in my pours
Needless all my dry hopping is now done in the fermenter prior to transfer into the keg

 

[raybies]

I had a similar problem I put a liquid qc on a gas line and fed gas through the pickup dip tube. Solve the problem for a few pours then it blocked again
I ended up de gassing the keg but left a little pressure in the keg and then removed the liquid post and dip tube and put a gas dip tube in and a floating dip tube onto that (not easy to do that while in the keg)
At least I then got no junk in my pours
Needless all my dry hopping is now done in the fermenter prior to transfer into the keg

That would be a good solution, but I was stumped how it could be blocked... I cold crash, I filter...

 

[Ballaratguy]

A local craft brewery has been making a mid strength beer that he claimed was hoppy. I thought it was ordinary
He’s got a new brewer who suggested to not change anything other than to add the dry hopping during cold crash
It’s a different beer than I like now

 

[shmick]

1. I then set the temperature to 1 °C (it was 2 °C before), gave it 2 days, and that’s when the saga started.

Wasn't frozen was it?

The temperature at the bottom of a fridge can be several degrees lower than the top where some thermostats are positioned.

That's pretty cold for a DIPA though - you would lose a lot of flavour.