Bev-Seal Ultra leak?

[srice]

OK, I am at a loss as to what is going on in my keezer. I have 20ft lines with John Guest fittings. Things have been going well until the past week or so. When I try to pull a beer from one of my taps that hasn't been used in the last 24 hours, I end up with 1" beer and the rest of the pint being all foam. Looking at the beer line, it looks like it is empty before I pull the beer. The second beer is fine and things are fine until the line sits for several hours and then the entire process starts over.

My first thought was that I have a leak in my beer line. I expected to see evidence of a beer leak but that isn't the case. It seems that the beer line is filling with air or CO2 while it is sitting. Any idea as to what is going on?

 

[QuercusMax]

Try putting a little fan in there to circulate the air in your keezer. I had lots of foaming problems before I hooked up a CPU fan. You can get one for 5 bucks, hook it up to an old cell phone charger or AC-DC adapter.

 

[srice]

I've got a fan - that isn't the problem. Somehow beer is draining from my lines between pours - and it isn't leaking into the keezer

 

[LLBeanJ]

Try replacing the O-ring on the liquid dip tube. A leak there could allow CO2 from the keg to travel up into the liquid line, while still keeping all beer and gas contained within the system.

 

[day_trippr]

Assuming the dispensing pressure has remained consistent, possibly a leaky Out dip tube flange o-ring is allowing CO2 in the keg head space to inject directly into the beer line...

Cheers!

 

[JuanMoore]

I've got a fan - that isn't the problem. Somehow beer is draining from my lines between pours - and it isn't leaking into the keezer

No, beer isn't draining from your lines, gas is breaking out of solution and filling the lines. If beer were somehow draining from the system it would mean you have a leak, which would mean that either your CO2 would be empty by now, or there would be beer leaking all over the inside of your keezer.

Gas breaking out of solution only has a couple of potential causes. Since it's only the first pour that's having issues, that pretty much rules out the suggestions above that a bad liquid dip-tube o-ring is allowing gas to get in the line during a pour. That leaves an equilibrium issue as the cause. Severe temperature stratification can be one cause of equilibrium issues leading to gas breaking out of solution, but since you have a fan going, that's likely not it either. That leaves one possible cause, the serving pressure doesn't match the carbonation level of the beer. The solution is to either turn the gas off and periodically vent the keg until the carb level reduces to match your serving pressure, or increase your serving pressure until it matches your carbonation level.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]Since it's only the first pour that's having issues, that pretty much rules out the suggestions above that a bad liquid dip-tube o-ring is allowing gas to get in the line during a pour.[...]

Leaks aren't all or nothing. I covered the mismatched dispensing pressure vs carbonation level aspect as a caveat, but a slow enough leak could definitely cause the OPs symptoms...

Cheers!

 

[srice]

Hmmm. I'm not seeing how this would happen. The keg was force carbed over a period of a few weeks with the exact same CO2 setting. I kegged the beer and then put the keg into its current spot in the keezer. Hooked up the CO2 and didn't touch for a few weeks while a prior keg was on top. When that keg kicked, I cleaned the line and connected the line to the problem keg. The keg never moved, the gas line was never disconnected and the CO2 pressure never changed.

 

[corn]

Possibly a while in the dip tube itself? Is it happening to all kegs or just one keg. Once liquid level gets below a leak point then gas would no longer force beer up through dip tube, instead gas will go through the leak and straight to the tap.

Good luck