Leaky Keg

Hi Simon

You are lucky. Last year, one of my full 40(UK)pint kegs split the day before we were due to set off on a month's vacation, depositing

20(UK)pints of homebrew onto our spare room carpet - it could have been worse, it could have happened just after we left!!!

The split was just above the half full mark so I just put the damaged (and now unpressurised) keg in the bath and left it till we got back; it wasn't going to leak any more, it was already down to the split.

When we got back from our vacation I transferred the beer into another keg and re-pressurised it from a CO2 canister. The beer was fine (the spare room carpet wasn't - however it had needed replacing anyway).

Regards

KGB

Well, I have bought the new keg and siphoned off everything into this. I have added some more sugar to hopefully aid in more carbonation. I know this will make the beer sweeter, but I don't mind too much! Jeez, I was expecting my first brew to be a failure (so far tastes really nice), but was expecting it to be due to my negligence rather than a kit problem :)

Dunno what caused the leak though. After screwing off the tap completely everything looks okay! Maybe it was screwed on too tightly or something! Gonna have a check at the weekend.

On the bright side, I potentially have 2 kegs which means I can keep brewing in rotation and always have beer (which was my plan anyway!) Shame I have lost so much in the process (dunno why but I have had problems siphoning the last couple of pints, both from the fermenting bin and from this keg - nothing to do with the levels as I always made sure the original container was higher.... Lost about 5 pints due to that!)

thought of 2 choices my last choice is first. becuz i do not know your abilities.

throw out the beer, and do it again. fix or replace the bung, unless you have exceeded the psi of the tank. the idea of a tablespoon of dextrose for luck is NEVER a good idea.

but here is my first comment below here

no idea your components i assume brass fitting on an aluminum tank

new tank huh?

cautiously like with a buddy who is steady, move the tank into the back yard at night time. put it into a shallow tank of water on the lawn and cover it over night

shaking it is not a good idea, so take your time.

about 4 hours later, if your climate cools easy. start to release the seeeping bung.

hissing is fine. let it go and check it to make sure it is giving off gas.

as the gas releases it will allow you to open the bung further. when you can remove it loosely, with no signs of gas. please be caucious here as it is actually explosive. wiggle the bung. no gas build up, open it up

your local appliance repairman should be able to sell you food grade teflon tape. wrap the bung and close it up.

Thanks, but slightly late...

Since I bought the Keg about 400 miles away from where I live getting a refund is unfortunately a near impossibility.

I bought a new keg and syphoned all the beer from one to the other.

I think that the original keg is okay. After unscrewing the tap, I slightly adjusted the rubber washer type thing. Hopefully this should now be okay to start again.

I only have cheap plastic kegs. Haven't the finances to be buying much at the moment. Hopefully in a year or so I will be able to buy myself better equipment!!!

This is just a wild guess, but it occurrs to me that teflon plumbing tape (normally used to seal threaded pipe fittings in household plumbing) might work with your keg.

You wrap the threads tightly with it before screwing them together. I've found it works pretty well with iron, plastic, and brass fittings.

Any yeas or nays from the experts here?

Karl S.

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:48:32 GMT, "Karl S." said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

It sounds more as if he has a crack in the keg, not a leak in the threads.

Ah, OK... Plastic keg too, I see... Anything that'd repair cracked plastic would likely alter the flavor or toxicity of his brew. Well, it was just a thought.

Karl S.