Newbie Made 2 Kegging Mistakes- Bad?

[Monmouth00]

Hello Everyone,

Another newbie, another screw-up. In fact, just for fun, I made two mistakes in rapid succession.

Upon kegging for my second time ever, I may have injured my regulator and contaminated my beer. Good for me, right?

I was force-carbonating. I put 30 psi in the keg and rolled that sucker around for a while before placing it back in the refrigerator. I dropped the pressure on the regulator, and of course forgot to purge the excess pressure on the keg. It sputtered and hissed a bit before a small spray of beer came out of the regulator. I quickly realized that I didn't have a check valve on my regulator, and beer was being pushed back toward my CO2 tank.

Thinking quickly, I shut the valve, and purged the keg. This drew in some old beer in the "out" line back into my keg, and on top of my fresh beer inside. I had intended to burn the excess in the line by pouring off the first pint from the keg.

First, what's the likelihood that I ruined my regulator? I removed it immediately, and gave it a quick flush with warm water before blowing air through it to dry. There wasn't beer gushing out of it, just a very fine, gurgling mist for a few seconds. I got almost no beer out of the line. Am I good, or should I go regulator shopping again?

Next, the beer in the line - what's the chances it could spoil my batch? It was just a little, maybe .5 Oz, but it had some trub in it from the previous batch. It had stayed refrigerated, and wasn't exposed to O2 (never disconnected the keg when I finished it. It was probably only a week old. Any chance that small amount could infect the rest of my fresh batch?

Feeling pretty dumb right now. Beat me up - especially about putting water into my regulator to clean it. But please, tell me I didn't screw it up too badly?

Thanks!

 

[Jag75]

#1 your not the first to make that mistake and neither am I lol. I did just that not long ago. Heres my advice. Take apart your regulator and clean it thoroughly. All the little ports and diaphragm with hot water . Hopefully it didnt get into the gauges . Once you clean it leave it apart for a couple days or so to allow to dry . Once dry reassemble and you should be good to go. Now as far as the gas lines I just replaced mine I didn't want to bother with cleaning and drying . I wanted to make sure there was no moisture in them at all . For the beer getting sucked back into the keg I'm not sure I'd worry about it unless it was really old . Even then I'm not sure . Chalk it up to a learning experience.

 

[balrog]

Wait, you had trub in the gas line from previous batch?
Fermenting in keg and krausen blow off came through gas hose or something?

 

[Jag75]

Wait, you had trub in the gas line from previous batch?
Fermenting in keg and krausen blow off came through gas hose or something?

I think he was talking about left over beer from the empty keg in the beer line going to the tap.

 

[Monmouth00]

Not "trub" in the beer dispensing line per se, but more like precipitate (yeast etc.) from the cold crashing.

It just got caught in there from the last pint I poured before the keg kicked - sucked up off the bottom.

Should a little funk not be left in the bottom after I finish a keg?

 

[Monmouth00]

#1 your not the first to make that mistake and neither am I lol. I did just that not long ago. Heres my advice. Take apart your regulator and clean it thoroughly. All the little ports and diaphragm with hot water . Hopefully it didnt get into the gauges . Once you clean it leave it apart for a couple days or so to allow to dry . Once dry reassemble and you should be good to go. Now as far as the gas lines I just replaced mine I didn't want to bother with cleaning and drying . I wanted to make sure there was no moisture in them at all . For the beer getting sucked back into the keg I'm not sure I'd worry about it unless it was really old . Even then I'm not sure . Chalk it up to a learning experience.

Thanks, Jag.

I'm not quite sure that I'm capable of disassembling the regulator. From what I can see, nothing got in the gauges.

I'm not talking about beer gushing out of the regulator here - is was really just a second or two of hiss and gurgle until i occurred to me what was happening.

I did rinse thoroughly, but I'm not sure how dry I got it.

Do you think the residual moisture will cause further damage?

 

[Jag75]

Yes , you have to get all the liquid out . It's not that hard to take apart . I did a thread on it . I'll see if I can find it .

 

[Jag75]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/beer-backed-into-the-regulator.665858/#post-8594143

I had it in my tank regulator also. Took them both apart and cleaned em .

 

[Monmouth00]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/beer-backed-into-the-regulator.665858/#post-8594143

I had it in my tank regulator also. Took them both apart and cleaned em .

Thanks, very helpful.

So, just unscrew the black housing with the pressure regulator? I have a kegco one as well, kind a like this, but with both a tank and keg gauge:

Is it right hand thread, or lefty loosey?

What about the valve and valve housing? Remove those as well and clean? Right hand?

Thanks!

 

[Jag75]

They are regular threads .Yes that black housing piece unscrews . Once you get the black housing off you'll see the diaphragm. Do you have a secondary regulator or just one on your tank?

 

[Monmouth00]

They are regular threads .Yes that black housing piece unscrews . Once you get the black housing off you'll see the diaphragm. Do you have a secondary regulator or just one on your tank?

Just the one on the tank. I'll try to get it apart soon. Vacation to Nh until Monday. Lots of breweries to see in Portsmouth!

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Jag75]

Portsmouth is cool . Enjoy your vacation!