I recently put two kegs in my fridge, using a newly-set up manifold to split my CO2. Put the pressure up to about 20 PSI for two days to jumpstart carbonation. Yesterday I went to take some samples off the kegs to see how they were doing - I only have one picnic tap line set up right now, so I connected it to each of the kegs in turn. The first one poured fine, if a bit energetically (forgot to vent it first!), but the second keg wouldn't pour. It's my APA IPA, which had tons of late/dry hops, and when I racked it I accidentally picked up a slug of trub, too. So I'm guessing that it's the dip tube that is clogged, since the same picnic tap and QD works fine when I switch it back to the other keg. Assuming this is my problem, does anyone have some practical suggestions for cleaning out the dip tube? I don't have a long bottle brush, but I do have access to some wire coat hangers if need be.
If these are corny kegs, depressurize the keg and unscrew the dip tube post and pull the tube out, clear the clog and reassemble.
I had a similar problem once. FWIW, it wasn't my dip tube that was clogged, but the keg post. The opening around the poppet valve is pretty small.
i recently had my bagged hops escape on me...it took like 4-5 times of doing what naugled talked about to finally get the beer moving freely, but it worked for a couple weeks. Then ended up having to pour the last half gallon of the keg into a growler as the bottom of the keg started to the clog up again and I didn't have the patience to clear it out again.
not only the dip tube, unscrew the poppet valve and clear it out. that will be a mangled mess of hop shite. Cheers.
I just had this issue. I disconnected the beer and gas line, used my pressure relief valve, then connected the gas line to the liquid keg post and opened up the gas. Co2 refilled the keg through the dip tube and cleared the blockage that I had. It's flowing fine now.
So I took care of this last, more or less, but things didn't go exactly as planned. I vented the keg, unscrewed the liquid post and disassembled everything. I rinsed out the dip tube and washed the bits of the post, but I didn't see a whole lot of hop matter - or anything else, for that matter. Reassembled everything, turned the gas back on...and it still wouldn't pour. I started messing with removing the QD, putting it back and trying to pour, but my line filled with foam. After about 2 cycles of this, I pulled the QD and beer starting running out of the post - a dribble at first, then a spray. So I put the QD back on, and voila!, the beer started to pour. Unfortunately, I can't remove the QD from the keg again or else I will get a geyser of IPA all over my fridge. That's not a huge deal, but I'm short one swivel nut to put together a second tap line, so my 80 shilling is going to have to chill out until I get the piece or kick the keg of IPA. So the good news is that I can drink my IPA while it's fresh. But I'm definitely going to have to mess with the post once the keg has kicked, I need to figure out why it's leaking now.
A bad poppet (that doesn't seat correctly) can cause a geyser when the disconnect is removed. But I've never heard of a bad poppet causing zero flow when the disconnect is on. Maybe if the spring was somehow jammed (i.e. not compressing)? sounds like you hit the jackpot with a multi-failure mode poppet. I'd replace that first.
could be the disconnect is not engaging the valve. the pin inside might be mangled or otherwise fubar. dunno. but a new disconnect + new valve assembly is maybe $20 total? I say start over.
