Kegged beer - not pouring once in kegerator

I am assuming and hoping there is a super obvious answer to my problem.

I brewed an IPA...came out great! I kegged it, pressurized it, and it was pouring smooth.

I got a great deal on a kegerator, so I hooked it up, hooked up my keg of IPA, let it cool and the next day ....nothing!

My first thought was there might be a problem with the kegerator line, so I re-hooked up my other tap that was working fine before and...nothing.

So I thought the problem might be a change in carbonation caused by the colder temperature, so I jacked up the pressure on the CO2 and...nothing. Still after a couple days and trying both the kegerator line and the hand line that was working fine before.

Obviously, this is my first time tapping my beer to a kegerator (since I just bought) and usually i just end up pouring it warm into a cold glass or a growler that I chill. Stoked to have the kegerator....but I want a beer!!!! Any thoughts?

What temp is the kegerator set for? One time I accidentally turned it down too cold while I was lagering, and partially froze the beer, and a big chunk of ice clogged up the dip tube ( at least as far as I could tell). Took me a while to figure out that that was why mine stopped dispensing. I just turned up the temp and let it sit for a while, and voila everything's fine.

Or did you dry hop? Maybe some hop leaves are clogging the dip tube?

My first thought would be a co2 leak somewhere in your system. If you disconnect the co2 tank and crack it open does anything come out?

could you possibly have hops stuck in the dip tube?

Narrow it down. Check the keg pressure relief valve. If you have pressure the problem lies from the beer out dip tube through the tap. If that is the case, and if you have a spare tap switch to that, otherwise depress the poppet with a pen cap or something and keep a towel handy. Still no go it is a clog in the dip tube or poppet. If it is a clog, go ahead and slowly depressurize, remove the post and dip tube and clean well, reassemble and repressurize and test.

Dry hops can clog the dip tube or even a hop bag can get stuck under it and cause a lack of flow. Just be sure to be sanitary.

BigFloyd said:

What happens when you give a brief tug on the pressure relief valve? Watch the needle on your reg when you do that to see if it moves and recovers.

If the keg is gassed up, the problem is obviously on the liquid out side. Check to make absolutely sure that the ball lock connector is all the way down onto the post. If it's not, it won't depress the poppet and open it up.

Click to expand...

This was going to be my suggestion. There are times when it seems like the ball lock is all the way on, when in fact it is not. Double check that everything is in fact pushed on as far as it can go.

It that doesn't do anything, pull off the connectors. Pull the pressure relief valve and make sure there is no pressure inside the keg. Then with a small screwdriver, push down on the poppets on the keg and make sure they are indeed able to move. I did have a keg one time where I took it off tap for a day. When I hooked it back up, the beer side poppet was stuck because some beer had been left on it and it dried up, thus preventing the ball lock from being able to push the poppet down and let beer out.

AGAIN though, before you start pushing down on the poppets, make sure you have released all the pressure in the keg through the relief valve. You do not want to push down on the beer side poppet with pressure in the keg and no where for the beer to go but all over your walls.

That happened to me once. Turns out the beer in the line froze. Check that

Did you clean the tap when you bought the kegerator? Is there a tap plug, and did you remove it?

I'd get a line brush and snake the entire thing. Sounds like you have a clog. Better yet, replace all the lines.

drunklejon said:

narrow it down. Check the keg pressure relief valve. If you have pressure the problem lies from the beer out dip tube through the tap. If that is the case, and if you have a spare tap switch to that, otherwise depress the poppet with a pen cap or something and keep a towel handy. Still no go it is a clog in the dip tube or poppet. If it is a clog, go ahead and slowly depressurize, remove the post and dip tube and clean well, reassemble and repressurize and test.

Dry hops can clog the dip tube or even a hop bag can get stuck under it and cause a lack of flow. Just be sure to be sanitary.

Click to expand...

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This ^