I recently bought a replacement sixtel keg and installed it into my kegerator. A couple hours after tapping the keg I attempted to sample my fresh new beer. At the initial pour it was very foamy (which I expected since the keg was recently transported), then it started to pour clean, and then the pour reduced to barely a trickle. I took out the coupler and soaked it overnight, as well as cleaned out the lines. The PSI on my CO2 tank reads 10. I weighed the CO2 tank (which is a 20lb capacity) just to make sure it wasn’t empty and it was 41lbs. I believe it is an aluminum tank which means it should weigh 25lbs when empty. Also when I open the tank when it is disconnected I can hear gas coming out… so my conclusion is the tank is NOT empty. Anyways after all this trouble shooting, my beer still pours out at a trickle and then eventually stops pouring all together. I should say the beer was pouring fine on the pervious keg I had tapped and I haven’t done anything to mess with the temperature settings or PSI settings since then. Does anybody have any insight on this issue? Thanks.
I had this exact thing happen to me a few months ago. I went through all the troubleshooting only to find out that I had forgotten to turn the CO2 back on at the secondary regulator. I must have been drinking when I was cleaning the lines that time.
Did you use the NEW little washer that is usually rubberbanded to the top of CO2 tank? Not using a washer, or reusing the old spent one, will give you that whistling noise, and quickly empty your tank.
mmm I will untap the keg and test the CO2 through the coupler when I get home from work and let you know. I do know that when I cleaned the coupler, the little ball inside of it could move around freely up and down. Thanks for the input so far.
If you are not getting co2 from coupler when unhooked then I would say you are having regulator problems.
if you get some flow sometimes over the course of days, you most certainly have gas in the cylinder. there is a good chance the regulator is screwy. it reads 10 psi, but it is fact only applying a pound or two of pressure. 2nd most likely, frozen line or frozen coupler. that fix is easy. check the temp inside the kegerator. if it is below 28 your beer is freezing. the kegerator has a bad t-stat or is set too high. most likely is still bad regulator. not unheard of. Cheers.
okay so I DO get CO2 from the coupler when unhooked. I don't think anything is frozen because I still had these problems right after I had cleaned the lines and coupler (so I know they weren't frozen then). hmmmmmmmm
Not necessarily. The headspace pressure will dispense a couple of beers just fine. CO2 will then escape the beer to replenish the headspace over a period of time, building pressure in the headspace, so it will appear to pour fine after a couple of days. This would indicate a bad gauge, not a bad regulator +1 Could be, but there's no evidence of that. (see above) Indeed!
The tare weight should be clearly marked on the tank. Look for 'TW'. But you're right - the tare weight of a 20# aluminum tank is in the neighborhood of 25#, so 41# pretty much rules out an empty tank.
Alright so I think the problem was with the CO2 gauge itself and not the actual regulator. Since I changed the gauge and adjusted the pressure, I have had only successful pours (so far) and the beer never tasted so good! Thanks for helping everyone.
