What's going on with my keg?

Kegging
1

this became a discussion in my other thread so i figured i’d make it its own thread so that maybe more people will see it and chime in…

So i’m trying to force carbonate some skeeter pee. I connected my CO2 and set the regulator to 25PSI and let it equalize. Then I disconnected the CO2 and set my keg outside overnight (about 55-60*F) and then reconnected the keg to the CO2 with the gas shut off in the morning to see what the regulator would read. It read zero. I checked for leaks and found none, and gave the relief valve a quick pull and found plenty of pressure. The hose valve was open so the keg pressure would back flow to the regulator, but it read zero.

After that I left the hose attached, turned the gas on, and dialed the pressure up to 20PSI and left the hose attached. This was three days ago. Since then the needle has dropped down to 10PSI. I sampled some of the SP today and while it flowed from the keg nicely, it was not carbonated (at least it did not stay carbonated once in the glass. there were some bubbles when it was pouring, but nothing rising from the bottom once the head fizz died off (about 2 seconds later).

So what’s going on? This is my first time kegging so I’m not sure what is supposed to be happening. I know i’m not working with ideal temperature conditions, but I’d like to understand the data I’m getting from my regulator so i know what’s happening inside my keg.

The CO2 bottle is brand new, 5lbs, and completely full (about 800psi). The regulator is a brand new kegco dual gauge. There are no leaks in the keg, hoses, attachments, regulator, valves, etc…NOTHING IS LEAKING! So why did the regulator not read the pressure in the keg when i hooked it up, and why did the pressure reading drop from 20psi to 10psi and hold??

trying to understand what my keg is telling me so i know what’s going on inside. This is my first time kegging anything and I can’t find any info about this issue.

thanks in advance!!!
:cheers:

2

I have shutoffs with check valves in my gas lines. It is a good thing or your beer would back up into your gas lines. The check vales will also prevent the regulator from reading keg pressure. It will only read line pressure.

If you turn it up to 20 PSI now and leave it connected, I bet it will stay at 20 PSI, day in day out. Hard to explan your drop, but intuition tells me that something was not equalized when the guage was reading 20 PSI.

3

Not sure why these questions need to be addressed in two threads?

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=118382

I didn’t address the drop in pressure in the other post. Sometimes regulator have “drift”. They are a mechanical item and sometimes fail. Only to work properly later.