HELP!!! Kegging Disasters!

Don't panic. This kind of thing happened to a lot of us when we first started kegging. Bottom line: it almost has to be a leak, and you should be able to find it and fix it relatively easily.

Here's what I'd do: Keep the beer cold. Get more C02. Get a spray bottle and fill it with starsan, or if you don't have starsan use dish soap. Put your whole set up somewhere you have easy access--ie, don't try to do this in your freezer. Hook the gas up and pressure up to 30 psi. Spray *every* connection thoroughly and look for bubbles. If you can't see a leak, give it more pressure. Once you find the leak (and I'm pretty confident you will find one) then ... well, fix it. It might be you need to tighten a connection, or replace a seal. Once you think you have it fixed, put it back in the freezer, pressure up, and check your volume gauge. Check it again a few hours later to make sure volume is staying fairly stable. If it's dropping quickly again, repeat the process above.

 

Also, if you find a leak in the o-ring or something, one thing I've noticed is that the seal will work just fine once under pressure. One thing you could try is to lift the keg up from the cap-handle-thing, apply pressure with CO2, and once you can see/hear that the seal has shut, snap the keg shut.

Of course, a better option would be to replace the o-ring.

 

Interesting, I guess I just always assumed better safe than sorry. Good to know.