clogged keg

[jimmyz]

Racked a rye beer into my keg threw it into the fridge and tapped it 24 hours later and i got to much trub in there. Its clogged. Any suggestions to purge the gunk?

 

[jeffpn]

If you keep a fish tank, you know what goes on with a gravel cleaner. Suck it out! To save OMB some time from posting, cut your dip tube an inch shorter.

 

[J A]

Trub by itself won't usually clog the tube. You may have other issues. One thing to check for is icing up. Fridges are designed to move cold air from the freezer and when you make the alterations necessary for storing kegs, it can cause cold spots It doesn't have to be frozen solid, by any means...all it takes is a few ice crystals in the line to clog up.
In future, rack off the top of the trub after the yeast as settled out. You should be doing everything possible to get nothing but clear beer into your serving keg.

 

[Head First]

Racked a rye beer into my keg threw it into the fridge and tapped it 24 hours later and i got to much trub in there. Its clogged. Any suggestions to purge the gunk?

+1 shorten dip tube.You might pull it and clean it and if it is just a few hop pieces it will clean out. If there are lots of pieces of hops then shorten dip tube. It will be clogged at end of tube or in poppet valve or both.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

to clean it in place switch the gas and beer ball lock disconnects adding C02 pressure to the liquid line and blow it out but caution it will cloud up the beer

 

[Mark D Pirate]

to clean it in place switch the gas and beer ball lock disconnects adding C02 pressure to the liquid line and blow it out but caution it will cloud up the beer

You'll need to open the pressure release valve as well for this to work , mine seldom get blocked since I'm extremely careful to only take clean beer into kegs .

I have a separate line with liquid disconnect outside of fridge for purging kegs

 

[jimmyz]

I cleaned the dip tube and re assembled and it clogged instantly. Ripped back apart removed the quick connect fitting from the out feed side and put pressure back on it to purge the crap. I did this in the backyard. trimmed the pickup tube and reassembled. All good now. There is a lot of hop debris. May bee i should start filtering.

 

[Head First]

Don't know your set up but I tie a sanitized hop bag to the end of the hose from boil kettle to fermenter and drain slowly. I use a lot of whole hops and just by stiring a short whirlpool, letting it settle a bit then draining slowly it keeps hops out of fermenter. A good chill for at least 24hrs after fermentation settles the trub from fermenter and if the racking cane is held above the gunk when transferring to keg you will be fine.

 

[Head First]

If you don't have frig space then maybe freezer space for fermenter? A couple of hours, need to watch it so it doesen't freeze, will help settle the trub and help for quicker carbing.

 

[J A]

There is a lot of hop debris. May bee i should start filtering.

Yeah...you gotta keep the hop sludge out of there. When I dry-hop a beer, I try to do it while there's still some fermentation action so that the yeast will glom onto the hops and take it down when it drops. It's usually pretty good, but I give it a good cold-crash and tend to leave more in the fermenter when I transfer a batch like that.