Stuck Fermenter Tap After Dryp Hopping

[Guysmiley54]

Hi,

I dry hopped 50gm of Citra to a Black IPA I've got going last night and decided to start crash chilling shortly after.

24 hours later I went to taste a sample and the tap has slowed down to a drip... The temp controller tells me it's only down to 3 so I figure it's "probably" not frozen at the tap? I've dry hopped heaps of times and I wouldn't have thought that It could clog the tap like that...

Any ideas guys? I'm figuring that I will have to raise the temp to check for freezing as the cause and if that's no good I will have to syphon the beer out and rack it which doesn't really appeal h34r:

 

[mxd]

maybe a blast of co2 in the tap (assuming you have it) ?

 

[Guysmiley54]

maybe a blast of co2 in the tap (assuming you have it) ?

I don't keg... good idea though!

 

[QldKev]

Allow your racking cane to fill with beer, then lift then end of it straight up and force the beer back into the fermenter.

 

[peaky]

Hi,

I dry hopped 50gm of Citra to a Black IPA I've got going last night and decided to start crash chilling shortly after.

24 hours later I went to taste a sample and the tap has slowed down to a drip... The temp controller tells me it's only down to 3 so I figure it's "probably" not frozen at the tap? I've dry hopped heaps of times and I wouldn't have thought that It could clog the tap like that...

Any ideas guys? I'm figuring that I will have to raise the temp to check for freezing as the cause and if that's no good I will have to syphon the beer out and rack it which doesn't really appeal h34r:

Are you using one of those little plastic sediment strainer things on the inside of the tap? They are a pain in the arse, I've had a brew that was dry hopped get blocked in the fermenter before because of one of those things. If you are using one, chuck it away once you've managed to get your beer out of the fermenter.

 

[Guysmiley54]

Well I switched my fridge off and beer still won't flow, it must be a blockage :angry:

I'm not using a sediment reducer so that idea won't help much.

When you suggest using a racking can do you mean trying to force beer back up through the tap? I'm starting to get the impression that I may end up having to rack this beer to secondary using a syphon. Is that particularly risky in regards to infection?

 

[Jace89]

Siphon it from the top or the fermenter, or stick a piece of tubing on the tap and give a quickly blow of air using your mouth? It shouldn't put to much oxygen into the beer...

 

[pk.sax]

Let the beer finish crash chilling and then siphon out.

All the people that ferment in cubes siphon out too?! Quite easy if your siphon tube is soft to just pinch it to stop flow between bottles.