Learn from my kegging mistake

[soccerdad]

I was wracking my brain for a couple weeks ... A 3 gallon keg sitting on the hump was fine. Drafting right and tasting good. The 5 gallon keg sitting on the keezer floor was almost all foam. I checked the lines, cleaned the lines, determined that nothing was amiss with CO2 or regulator. I couldn't figure it out. I knew that this Brown Ale was nearing the end, so decided on New Years Eve day to kill it. Tried pouring a total of about 5 pints and most were all foam but would settle into a little bit of beer if set aside. On top of everything else the beer had started to taste like shite. So I decided to pull and replace the keg. TA DA ! The bottom 4 inches were ice and the CO2 space above the beer was all foam. So I checked the controller temp .. 31.5 (F) .. Cold enough to freeze. And did. Somehow - and I don't know when or how - I had gone from cold crashing to crushing cold. Simple lesson - if you are sure that your keezer is built right and leak free and clean .... Check the temp. Carry on. Brew strong

 

[Hawkbox]

Nice!

 

[J A]

Yep...been there. I've learned that the most likely issue with no-pour/slow-pour kegs is either ice or hop sludge somewhere in the system. I had an IPA that didn't rack very cleanly and it drove me nuts. I had to take the poppet apart a dozen times of more to clear the hop goo and get it flowing.

 

[Mark Farrall]

I get caught when I move the beer lines around and forget to keep them away from the condenser. Though once you've frozen the line enough times it becomes one of the first things you check and it's easy to fix.

 

[Hawkbox]

Yep...been there. I've learned that the most likely issue with no-pour/slow-pour kegs is either ice or hop sludge somewhere in the system. I had an IPA that didn't rack very cleanly and it drove me nuts. I had to take the poppet apart a dozen times of more to clear the hop goo and get it flowing.

I hate when that happens, such a hassle and a mess.

 

[Bubba Wade]

The floor of my keezer is cold. So I set the kegs on two short pieces of 1"x2". I have the temperature probe hanging about midway up in the keezer and set to 35 degrees F. Inkbird controls for the freezer. No issues with freezing.

 

[Craigerrr]

I remember stalks of celery freezing in the fridge. My mom would stand them up in a Tupperware thing with some water in it. Damn if the celery, and the water, didn't freeze! It was an old fridge, one that you had to open the fridge door to get to the thin aluminum freezer door inside. Point is, the celery became a conduit for the cold.