Gas Leak.

[Rich Moyes]

Morning all.

Recently i have had the dreaded feeling of going to pour a pint and realising that i must have had a small leak somewhere as i have no C02 left.

I had just brewed 2 beers for xmas, and thrown them into the kegs and connected the gas, checked it a day later and all was OK, went away with work for a week and gas is empty.
therefore, it’s been roughly 8-10 days from first connection to finding that there was a leak to new gas being delivered.

I connected the new gas first thing this morning, and being close to Xmas I thought it’s perfectly acceptable to taste test at 8:45 in the morning.

It would appear that there is a slight off taste to the beer.
Would you assume that a keg without C02 being pumped in would cause any problems to the beer?
I’ve no idea how much C02 would have been in the keg before the tank ran out.

Or is it simply my imagination. Leave it a week and see how it is?

any advise or indeed experience of this would be apprecited
thansk

 

[terrym]

@Rich Moyes
If your beer was OK when you transferred to your kegs, and the kegs were clean, there is little chance of that being the cause of any offtaste in my view. And leaving the beer alone with a CO2 leak is also unlikely to make any difference. But only you will know how likely your gas system will be as far as contaminating your beer
Next have you made this beer before, do you know what it tastes like?
Otherwise I would have thought that it is still green beer you are drinking.
So my suggestion is to forget about it for a week then try it again. If it has gone off there is little you can do about now. More likely thoughit will be fine

 

[Rich Moyes]

Thanks!
yeah i have brewed it before, pretty confident i am just being paranoid. I will leave it a week and try again.
cheers

 

[kelper]

Lubricate the seal and threads with vaseline or food-grade grease and don't overtighten.

 

[woody1959]

Morning all.

It would appear that there is a slight off taste to the beer.
Would you assume that a keg without C02 being pumped in would cause any problems to the beer?
I’ve no idea how much C02 would have been in the keg before the tank ran out.

Or is it simply my imagination. Leave it a week and see how it is?

any advise or indeed experience of this would be apprecited
thansk

Do you fill your kegs with CO2 before racking the beer? CO2 is heavier than air so what I do is to "pressure test" a keg before filling it then if it passes, take the lid off and fill with beer straight away, O2 is your enemy, the more of it that gets into your beer the more chance of "off" tastes

If you are using JG fittings, that's the obvious place to look for leaks first, unmake then remake them checking that pipes are pushed in as far as possible.

I never leave my kegs under constant CO2 pressure, a tiny leak can piss away a whole bottle before you know it, I pressurise to the PSI I want then I shut the gas off, that way if there is a leak I only lose what's in the system, not what's in the bottle as well.

A solution of 50/50 water fairy liquid and an artists largeish (1cm) paint brush is the best leak detector, just "paint" it over every place gas can possibly escape from and it will bubble where the leak is.

 

[The Baron]

Don't leave the gas on its a good way of losing all your Co2. I always turn my gas off paranoid about leaks so I just set the reg at the pressure I want and probably twice a day just burst it back up and it will be ok in 3 or 4 days then set at serving pressure and only re-gas when the pour slows

 

[BeerCat]

Any leaks I have had were fixed by replacing the grommets on the in/out posts. I recently lost half a tank through this so worth checking and pressure testing first.

 

[Rich Moyes]

Hi all,

All fixed, i found the culprit pretty easily by spraying everything with starsan and the bubbles quickly appeared over a John Guest splitter!
so replaced and all sorted!

The beer appears to be fine now too which is the main thing.

Thanks for the responses

 

[Graz]

Whilst we're on the subject, I'm fairly new to this kegging / force carbonation lark. Currently serving my first ale which I've force carbed and it has worked very well. Now it has carbonated I turn off the gas when I'm not serving it, after a few days the lower pressure gauge on the regulator stays pretty much at the pressure I have it set for (about 8psi) but the high pressure one drops to zero. When I turn the gas back on I hear some coming out into the keg. Is this normal or have I got a slight leak somewhere? I did leak test it all before force carbonating as during that phase I did leave the gas on and was paranoid about losing it all.

 

[foxbat]

Whilst we're on the subject, I'm fairly new to this kegging / force carbonation lark. Currently serving my first ale which I've force carbed and it has worked very well. Now it has carbonated I turn off the gas when I'm not serving it, after a few days the lower pressure gauge on the regulator stays pretty much at the pressure I have it set for (about 8psi) but the high pressure one drops to zero. When I turn the gas back on I hear some coming out into the keg. Is this normal or have I got a slight leak somewhere? I did leak test it all before force carbonating as during that phase I did leave the gas on and was paranoid about losing it all.

If all valves including the cylinder are closed and the high pressure gauge slowly drops to zero then there's a leak in the primary regulation stage. Did you leak check the thread connecting the high pressure gauge and also the cylinder connection?

 

[Drunkula]

have I got a slight leak somewhere?

When you shut off the gas is it just on the bottle but the regulator is still connected to the keg, that is there isn't a shut off AFTER the regulator? If it's the first all that's happening is that the gas already in the regulator is going into the beer.

I've got a shutoff on the out of my regulator - turn that off and the high pressure stays high if I turn off the bottle. Leave it open and the gas will enter the beer and the high side will drop.

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

The wife is buying me a keg & gear for Christmas. Thought I researched & know what I am Doing , Reading this I’m now sharting myself & confused if I encounter problems I’m worried.

 

[Drunkula]

I’m worried.

Don't worry until you have to worry. I lost almost a whole 6.35kg cylinder of gas on my first day and it would have been all of it unless the fittings froze solid. I'd say for the first few days do force carbing and leave the gas off when you're not watching over it and see how long it takes the high pressure side of the regulator to fall. You'll gradually learn to trust things.

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

Bit like having kids then ! Cheers

 

[Graz]

When you shut off the gas is it just on the bottle but the regulator is still connected to the keg, that is there isn't a shut off AFTER the regulator? If it's the first all that's happening is that the gas already in the regulator is going into the beer.

I've got a shutoff on the out of my regulator - turn that off and the high pressure stays high if I turn off the bottle. Leave it open and the gas will enter the beer and the high side will drop.

Thanks, I think it's that. I don't have a shut off after the regulator (it's one of these: https://brewkegtap.co.uk/collections/gas-co2-equipment/products/premium-regulator-made-in-italy ).

Also the first pint I pull after turning the gas back on again seems a bit more fizzy so I guess it could be that bit extra gas that's causing it.

Out of paranoia I gave it all a spray over with StarSan and couldn't see any leaks. It's now force carbonating another keg so hopefully it's fine.

Long term upgrade plan is to use the ODL regulator as a primary and then have a secondary regulator for each keg that would have it's own shut off. In that instance when not in use hopefully if I shut off each keg and the gas itself whatever pressure is residual in the system should remain.

 

[GerritT]

I connected the new gas first thing this morning, and being close to Xmas I thought it’s perfectly acceptable to taste test at 8:45 in the morning.

It would appear that there is a slight off taste to the beer.

That should teach you to drink beer at that time!