Keg Wont Dispense.....?

[chadjaja]

I'm setting my cuz up with a new keggerator. Last night he calls and says he has the final bit of kit to get it going. So he hooks up the reg and connects the gas and beer connects, sets the gas to pouring pressure and ........nothing.....

And then we try to problem solve bit by bit..over the phone mind you.

No leaks. Keg holds pressure fine and has for a fair while carbed (about 4 months for this belgian trippel)

Gas on bottle is on
Gas valve on reg is down and on position
When poppet is pressed beer comes out
Turned gas up to higher pressure to see if we can blow any obstruction out
Opened keg lid to make sure that beer side has the dip tube not the gas tube
Took keg outside and under pressure shot beer out a few feet to try to clear dip tube and poppet
Took post off, no debris in poppet/post
Took out the beer dip tube and its clear he says
Gave keg a swirl, light shake to stir up possible sediment cake
changed over the beer connect to another one (both connects are brand new and from different suppliers)
Took tap apart and put it back together

Well I'm stumped!

I've got him bringing over the keg, tap, line and connect so I can get it going. Firstly I plan on running cleaner thru the line and tap to see if it flows. Take the post off and really have a good look, same with dip tube....

Worst case is I siphon out the beer into another keg and then start fresh with it full of cleaner..

Any ideas or suggestions we haven't already done? Would of thought we just about covered everything!

Beer is under pressure and SHOULD actually want to come out...

His disappointment on the phone was pretty sad to hear, he was shattered as you would expect LOL

 

[gap]

Does beer flow into the beer line?

Regards

Graeme

 

[DU99]

sounds interesting..sounds like beer line has issue

 

[chadjaja]

Forgot to say. When connected no beer flows into beer line..

Its 4mm line from Grain and grape and set to the right length for balancing.

 

[alowen474]

sounds like his tap is blocked

 

[Frank]

If beer comes out your poppet when pressed your keg is fine. Sounds like a blockage on the tap or beer line. Best thing to do is disconnect the quick release, hose and tap etc and start again. Put the QD on and beer should squirt out, then put the beer line on and do again, then to tap etc. If you have an empty keg do all of this with water instead of beer.

 

[felon]

Sounds like frozen beer line. Make sure the beer line is not rubbing on the back or side walls.

 

[katzke]

Well my first guess is something wrong with the post or the connectors. I would let the gas out of the keg and try the connector with no hose on it. With venting the gas you will still get some beer out from the dissolved CO2 but not squirt it across the yard. If you get gas work your way down to the tap. If still no beer you may have the tap put together wrong or some obstruction in the tap.

If you do not get any beer out of the connectors then I would say something odd with the connector. Possible operator error and the connector is not on far enough.

Forgot to say. When connected no beer flows into beer line..

Its 4mm line from Grain and grape and set to the right length for balancing.

 

[chadjaja]

I couldnt' get him to service the tap as I had the shank wrench. I'm going to take the tap apart tonight and sanitise it to see if its sticking at all. The lever was working and the action was smooth when I was there on Sunday building the keezer and putting on the line etc.

Beer line couldn't of been frozen as there was no beer in it.

 

[mxd]

put the gas QD on the beer out line and burp it, if there is some Hops or gunk in the dip tube it'll should pop it out. Once I had to have the reg up to 250 kpa.

 

[chadjaja]

Ahhh thanks MXD, I hadn't thought of that as I wasn't sure if I could put it on without getting it stuck. Its the beer on the gas one that gets stuck right?

Seeing it first hand should make it easier. Still if it shoots beer out a few feet with the poppet pressed you would think thats enough to at least flood some beer into the beer line when connected, even if there is a partial blockage.

 

[Sammus]

When poppet is pressed beer comes out

half of you seem to be missing this part of the OP.

Obviously not a keg problem. Frozen lines or blocked tap would be my guess.

 

[glaab]

or it could be a dodgy beer QD

 

[chadjaja]

Well it can't be frozen beer lines as they are bone dry.

Two faulty QR from two different shops?

My money is on the tap but still even with a faulty/sticky tap I'd expect the beer line to flood with beer but no beer to flow out of the tap.

Got me stumped till I see it tonight.

 

[robbo5253]

If the Beer tap isnt opening at all then there will still be pressure back to the keg so it wont allow any Beer in.

Cheers

Robbo

 

[EnergeticSloth]

is there a chance could test it using a gun another tap or a picnic tap to narrow down the possible faults?

 

[cdbrown]

Take apart the beer disconnect and see if there's any problem there. As soon as you plug the disconnect onto a charged keg, beer should flow into the line, might not fill it but it will flow until the pressure is the same as in the keg. A blocked tap won't prevent beer from going into the line. Wonder if the disconnect has the small spike which is meant to depress the poppet?

 

[DU99]

dumb question can you see the beer in the line to the tap

 

[sim]

The beer gods are forcing maturation on you!

sim

 

[Spoonta]

I had a prob like that it turns out the pick up tube was blocked with hops I had to pull the keg a part and blow the pick up tube out