Kegging Question

When you say the "out valve" do you mean the liquid post or do you mean the pressure relief valve that you use to burp the keg when purging?

If the former, it sounds like you have one of the following...
- bad/improperly seated poppet (the thing you see the tip of, centered at the top of the post.
- bad/missing dip tube O-ring (the tiny one that seats the lip of the dip tube to the liquid out hole in the keg.
- bad/missing Post O-Ring (the bigger O-Ring that goes around the middle of the post (fitting into the notch) and couples the post to the quick disconnect
- defective quick disconnect

The last two only matter if you already had a quick disconnect attached to the post. Where did you see the bubbling coming from exactly?

 

Over tightening either post can deform or crush the oring causing leakage (and possibly ruin the oring), assuming it is the correct size oring, which in that case, that may be the issue. . In the case of orings, more tightening is not always better. Kegging is awesome once you get procedures and expectations set.

Answering vikeman's questions will allow for more detailed help.

 

Your beer is probably safe (for now). It sounds like you properly purged the air out of the tank. Your headspace should be CO2 only (good) and may have a tiny amount of pressure. Even at zero pressure very little air will "leak" through the failed valve and into the tank. This is not ideal but in the short term will not be fatal. But your tank doesn't hold pressure, you must fix the leak before you can move forward with carbonation/serving.

Troubleshooting a tank that has precious beer can be done but you risk air exposure. If you have another tank you want to pressurize it and make sure all is good. Then transfer (via CO2 and tubing) the beer to the good tank. Go ahead and bite the bullet and get a good (10 lb+) CO2-tank/reg and you'll be much happier.

All keggers have leaks along the way. You'll become an expert at troubleshooting these problems and the benefits of kegging make it all worthwhile.

 

The oring should be snug on the dip tube, just in case it is the wrong size. I would also check to see if there was any crud between the O-ring the dip tube the seat. An easy thing to try also would be to flip the O-ring. If it's deformed one way it may not be so deformed the other. When you put it back together hand tightened it and then apply CO2 pressure. If it is still leaking, slowly crank down on it with the wrench. I never tighten more than 1/4 turn once hand tight.

 

What scurvy311 said. This will involve removing the post and liquid dip tube. Normally you don't want to muck around with flipping o-rings but you have nothing to lose here. If you have a supplier near they are almost sure to have o-ring replacements, often seen in a 5 part o-ring kit. They are even available on Amazon but you'll save a ton if you buy in bulk (should have twice as many in reserve as you have tanks).

Removing all of this will allow the evil air into the headspace but you don't really have options. Work fast and then re-purge with CO2 and you'll minimize problems. Keep everything sanitized . . .

Here's a quick tutorial on assembling a Corny.

 

See if a little keg lube does the trick.

 

You might also try using two O-Rings on the dip tube, in case the problem is dimensional.

 

Do you have the liquid post on the 'out' side and the gas post on the 'in' side of the keg?
Easy to confuse the two and this would definitely cause a leak.

 

How so? Gas and liquid posts are threaded the same. And their internal dimensions are the same. There could be an issue if the quick disconnects were reversed, but based on the posts in this thread, I don't thing the OP even had a quick disconnect attached to the leaky post.