just started kegging and cleaned all my used kegs and ran cleaner and sanitizer through beer lines and then kegged my first batch and patiently waited for it to carbonate and after five days tried to pur a glass only to fing that there was not pressure on the keg. After playing with a spare keg found that the gas would only open the poppet valve at psi over 30? What is going on, is this right?
We’ll try to walk you through this, so forgive us if any of these sound like dumb/obvious questions:
- Is there an inline valve between the regulator and the gas hose? If so, make sure it’s open.
- Make sure the tank is open.
- BE CAREFUL - but make sure there is gas coming out of your ball-lock or pinlock connector. You can do this by pushing on the little black pin on the connector (the pin that depresses the poppit on your keg.
So…do you have gas coming out of the connector? If so, we’ll move on to the next issue.
Are you certain there is no pressure on the keg? How did you confirm this – by pulling on the PRV on the lid (ball) or depressing the gas in poppit with a screwdriver/fingernail?
So…if you’re certain there is no pressure on the keg AND you’re certain there IS gas coming out of the gas connector, then we have to take a look at this again. Confirm these two issues first and we’ll go from there.
Good advise from FR2T. One more question and also excuse me if it sounds to obvious. Is this a Pepsi AKA ball lock set up? if so you are using a gray quick disconnect? An easy way to remember is gray=gas black=beer.
Make sure that there is no one-way valve anywhere that may be sticking. I have one of these little devices coming out of every regulator body and the gas lines attach to them. I’ve found that for some reason not only do they prevent gas backflow, they can also stick in the closed position and prevent forward flow. Just happened the other day when I went to bottle some beer for competition and found that I had a problem getting the flow going once I dropped the pressure for the bottle filler.
Usually dropping the pressure all the way down and opening the end of the line near the QD or pressing in the valve on the QD while opening the valve on the regulator will pop them free. This is why they seem to work after the higher pressures are applied.
If they continue to stick I’d suggest cleaning or replacing. Do not lube with anything but tiny amounts of food-grade product if attempted, and ensure any extra gets purged before placing back into service.
