They came with my kegs from Kegco but I think they’re limiting the beer’s CO2 intake. I’m going to swap them out for traditional ones today to see if they make a difference.

I have been plagued by poor carbonation and I have tried everything else.

  • baconeater@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Yeah that sounds a lot like a clogged dip tube or poppet. My bet is on the poppet. You can clear a blockage fairly easily (at the downside of stirring up all the trub at the bottom of the keg) by switching the quick disconnects on your gas line to be liquid quick connects and blasting some CO2 down the liquid dip tube.

    • smellhound@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I was thinking the same. It’s a hazy IPA and I had a floating dip tube on there which fell off after kegging and carbing, so I put the regular dip tube in.

      I’m wondering if there’s not even enough carbonation to force the beer up through the dip tube but I will see.

      • baconeater@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        You basically don’t need any real pressure in order to force liquid out of the keg it’s just that if the pressure in the headspace is lower than the equilibrium pressure of the carbonation, then gas will come out of solution in the beer as it pours and it will go flat. If you pull the manual pressure relief and hear gas escaping then the beer should absolutely pour which again seems to suggest that something on the liquid side is clogged. Did you dry hop the beer in the keg?

        • smellhound@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Ok, very good to know. No dry-hopping in the keg and I transferred it to a secondary and then the keg, which removed the majority of the sediment (though it is a hazy IPA).

          I’m interested to see if the dip tube is clogged as well, though.

          • baconeater@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Hmm. I would personally try blasting some CO2 through the liquid post to clear out any blockages.

            • smellhound@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yeah, not removing the dip tube entirely?

              Also, I would assume with a slow leak that I would find myself running out of CO2 pretty quickly, right?

              • baconeater@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                I mean you could remove the dip tube but then you are opening up the beer to oxygen and potential contamination. Blasting gas through the liquid post can help clear clogs without opening up the keg. You can check for leaks by spraying the posts and the lid with either starsan or just soapy water.

                • smellhound@lemmy.worldOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, I was worried about contamination, too. I’ll give your method a try. Thanks for all the advice!

            • smellhound@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              For what it’s worth, here’s what the old post looked like.

              I put the new post on and the beer immediately went up the line out. I don’t think there was a clog at all. Going to leave it for a couple days to see if it makes the difference.

              • baconeater@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                I don’t notice anything super out of the ordinary. The poppet does appear to be more depressed than usual (they usually sit flush with the top of the post) but if anything I would think that it would be more likely to flow normally in this state (rather than not pour properly). I’m glad the new post seems to be working at least!

        • smellhound@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Last note, here they are (liquid posts but they’re identical in size to the gas ones) side by side.

          The distance from where the lock on to the top of the post looks the same, so we’ll see if this does the trick.