New to kegging- trying to test with water first...will this work?

[Bethjohn]

Hi everyone, long time listener first time caller here. I am in the process of setting up a kegging system for the first time. I've been reading some of these forums which have been very helpful but I still have a couple of questions. I'm trying to make sure the system is functional in time for Christmas as a present to my husband. I have everything set up, but I don't have any beer ready so I thought i'd try the system out with water first, just to make sure everything was working. Also, I like sparkling water, so I figure I'll just have an easy source of seltzer until we brew a new batch of beer. This should work, right?

Anyway, just got eveything hooked up, but I can't seem to dispense any water. I looked though the steps in the flowchart and determined that there is definitely gas going into the tank, but no water coming out. I know it takes a while for the CO2 to disolve in the liquid, so I am not worried about the water being carbonated just yet, I just want to be sure it can dispense. I have the pressure set at 12psi and when I have the connector witht he hose attached, nothing whatsoever is coming out. When I take the connector off and press the little pin with a screwdriver I get a tiny little gurgling sound so I don't think the intake pipe is blocked, but nothing actually comes out. Is this just a case of being impatient and I need to wait a few hours, or is this a sign that something isn't right?

Also- just so I know what to expect...should the beer line fill with liquid automatically when it is connected when there is pressure in the keg, to do I need to pull the handle to get it to fill up? Initially I stuck the "out" connector on the keg right away, but after reading a little more, it sounds like i should wait to connect it until I am ready to dispense. Is this correct? What is sthe shortest amount of time I can wait to try to dispensing and still find out if my setup is correct?

Thanks so much for your advice!! I know these are probably dumb questions but i just want to make sure this think works by Friday!

 

[Begin2Brew]

If everything is hooked up correct you should get water out of the liquid side as soon as you connect gas and turn on the valve and regulator. If you have it set to 12psi it should dispense water at a decent rate.

If you open the tap do you get air out at all?

Just to go over the basics the gas in should have the short post and liquid out the long post. The gas post shold also have small notches in down at the nut part. Remember Black (B) for Beer (liquid) and Grey (G) for Gas.

 

[Bethjohn]

Shoot. I don't get anything at all out of the tap.

I double-checked the connectors and I definitely have the gas and beer lines in the right places. Does this mean tha something is blocked?

 

[Bethjohn]

okay, I played with it a little more, and now I've figured out the problem is with my CO2 after all. I think maybe the guage wasn't reading correctly before. Now when I open the CO2 tank it comes out really forcefully (like 50psi, and the saftey realease thing pops out and starts hissing) and the dial that's supposed to control the pressure doesn't seem to be doing anything. I will try to fiddle with it a little more but I know oyu have to be careful with CO2. Any thoughts? I can take a picture of my regulator if that helps.

 

[Chipman]

I usually can't hold the beer line up too high while filling, like serving pressure 5-10 psi isn't enough to push the liquid UP so much.

Can you verify that CO2 is being pushed into the keg itself? Like take off the top, open up the CO2 line, and listen for it. Hope it works because kegging is one of the best things you can do as a homebrewer!

 

[Bethjohn]

Oh wow. Turns out I didn't realize which direction was on and which was off on my regulator valve. It's working. Thanks for letting me know that it ought to work right away, otherwise I would have been driving myself nuts checking every few hours and not knowing what was going on.

 

[Brulosopher]

okay, I played with it a little more, and now I've figured out the problem is with my CO2 after all. I think maybe the guage wasn't reading correctly before. Now when I open the CO2 tank it comes out really forcefully (like 50psi, and the saftey realease thing pops out and starts hissing) and the dial that's supposed to control the pressure doesn't seem to be doing anything. I will try to fiddle with it a little more but I know oyu have to be careful with CO2. Any thoughts? I can take a picture of my regulator if that helps.

Let's see that pic.