King Keg Incidents

[brizleciderarmy]

I emptied 5 litres of infected beer from my keg down the drain today in preparation for my Newkie Brown and the bubble from the float decided to go with it. Plop, straight round the bend. That ****** me right off :evil: I stuck my arm down but it was long gone.

Now i gotto wait several days for another one to get posted, in the mean time i got a bucket of beer sat on the kitchen worktop which i aint budging. Much to the other halfs dissapointment

Anyways getting to the point. While i was rinsing the keg after the 'incident' i thought to myself, i wonder what would happen should one of these Kingys rupture? The possibilities of mayhem did cheer me up somewhat. Has anyone ever had one go pop? If so how did it go? Did the lid take off or the tap ping around the room? Even better do they make a loud bang? Was your carpets covered in foam? Or did it just split and let of a little fart?

I'm tempted to get my old budget keg and prime it with a kilo of sugar, see if it reaches orbit. That'll teach it to dump its components down the drain :lol:

 

[Bobw]

"I'm tempted to get my old budget keg and prime it with a kilo of sugar, see if it reaches orbit." Sounds like a good idea! :thumb: I reckon as large an air space as possible would be best. If it was nearly full it would just split.

Are you going to save it for Guy Forks night?

bob

Edited to say sorry to hear about your beer!

 

[TRXnMe]

One of the members had a king keg split, quite a long thread about it somewhere on here, sadly my search skillz are pretty cr@p so I can't find it.

The one in question split gently and leaked beer into his carpet, no head, just a soggy carpet and beery room.

FWIW he got a brand new body off the manufacturer :)

I doubt one would explode spectacularly, the nature of plastic is that it will fail elastically, even if there is a fault it will open up relatively slowly, whereas for it to go bang it would ave to open up very, very quickly* :)




Remember explosions are supersonic.

 

[oldstout]

T'was I

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26770


:thumb:

 

[brizleciderarmy]

Oh i remember the Homewrecker or shall i say carpet wrecker thread.


I wasnt sure whether or not to bump this or not as im beginning to sound like a moaning git ( which i am). But the saga continues. The Newkie Brown has been kegged for a while now so deserved a few 'tester' pints. To my annoyance it came out cloudy and gave me the squits.

Anyway it turns out that the bubble has come free from the new float and the rest has sunk, drawing the sludge out of the tap aswell. 2 floats in a row that lost its bubble. I de-gassed the keg and saw the detached clear bubble floating on top. As i went grab it it rolled over, filled with ale and sunk. :evil:

Anyway i dunked my arm in, grabbed it, fixed it back to the rest of the float with some insulation tape, re-gassed the keg with an 8gram bulb and off we go for another this time clear pint. NOPE. All i was getting was gas and foam with a little bit of liquid. When i operated the tap, the gas was escaping through the connection between the float and the back of the tap inside the keg.

After yet another de-gassing of the keg i fixed that with some tape. and finally i got a pint of flattish clear drinkable Newkie Brown. :drink: :drink: :drink: :drunk:



I have to ask, what is the point in the top tap version of these Kingys? Theres more stuff to go wrong with them and in the year or so i have been using them i have had nothing but trouble with them. I wouldn't recommend one to anyone. Spend your 50 odd quid on adopting an elephant or put it on Bristol City winning the FA Cup this year. OR buy a bottom tap version which i wish i did.


For the sake of balance if anyone is still sat on the fence about whether to buy one of these Newkie Brown kits, go for it. :thumb: For the price it makes a very nice pint. I dry hopped mine with Kent Goldings and added some light spray malt to add a bit of taste.

 

[Ukulele Kris]

You're making me real nervous about my first brew, which is in a top tap King Keg, which I had reservations about in the first place, but, ho hum, it's what came with the kit. All further barrels are going to be bottom tap ones. Because then gravity can do the work. It's amazing what can be done with gravity.

 

[Kevin Wood]

The thing is, top or bottom tap, you don't want to be relying on gravity to dispense the beer but pressure. Gravity alone means that air is getting into the keg, either by the tap "glugging" on a bottom tap keg, or because you will have to release the top to prevent this. Using pressure, from conditioning or applied through the valve, keeps air away from the beer and stops it from going off. It does mean that the keg must be well sealed and, on a top tap, that the float functions correctly.

I have both a top tap king keg and a bottom tap budget keg. I've had great results from both of them but they require a regime to be followed at filling time to ensure that they don't malfunction once they are full of beer, IMHO.

A (not necessarily exhaustive) list of checks worth making, in my opinion, before filling:

1) If the keg is new, check for any moulding burrs and other imperfections in the areas where the lid and tap washers seal against the keg. Remove these with a fine sandpaper.

2) Dismantle everything and sanitise. (tap off, dismantle all parts of the float mechanism and remove the pipe connector from the tap. Remove CO2 valve from lid and remove bands from the valve).

3) Smear a thin layer of vaseline on the tap and CO2 valve sealing washers and the large silicone washer that seals the lid. Smear a little on the lid threads to lubricate them. Smear a little on the CO2 valve rubber bands to prevent leakage and refit them.

4) Reassemble all components.

5) Add a little water and ensure the float sits with the bulb upwards and the tube immersed as soon as there is enough water for it to start to float. If it doesn't, angle the connector to the rear of the tap to keep it the right way up. If there are issues with the float assembly, the complete assembly can be replaced quite cheaply, so it's not worth risking a brew if it's prone to falling apart or the tube has got a bit manky.

6) Fill to about 80% capacity of water, replace the lid firmly without over-tightening and inject CO2 or compressed air until the relief valve blows. Leave it overnight and check that there is still plenty of pressure the following day with no liquid leaks. (omit this once you have some confidence with getting it sealed)

7) Empty the keg, flush out with a sanitising solution once more and rinse if required, then fill with beer, prime and replace the lid, again avoiding overtightening.

8) Keep an eye on the keg over the first few days of conditioning, occasionally releasing a little beer to check that the pressure is not escaping.

This sounds like a right pain, I know, but only takes 10 minutes or so once you've done it a few times. It's a lot less hassle than bottling, after all.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

The thing is, top or bottom tap, you don't want to be relying on gravity to dispense the beer but pressure. Gravity alone means that air is getting into the keg, either by the tap "glugging" on a bottom tap keg, or because you will have to release the top to prevent this. Using pressure, from conditioning or applied through the valve, keeps air away from the beer and stops it from going off. It does mean that the keg must be well sealed and, on a top tap, that the float functions correctly.

I have both a top tap king keg and a bottom tap budget keg. I've had great results from both of them but they require a regime to be followed at filling time to ensure that they don't malfunction once they are full of beer, IMHO.

A (not necessarily exhaustive) list of checks worth making, in my opinion, before filling:

1) If the keg is new, check for any moulding burrs and other imperfections in the areas where the lid and tap washers seal against the keg. Remove these with a fine sandpaper.

2) Dismantle everything and sanitise. (tap off, dismantle all parts of the float mechanism and remove the pipe connector from the tap. Remove CO2 valve from lid and remove bands from the valve).

3) Smear a thin layer of vaseline on the tap and CO2 valve sealing washers and the large silicone washer that seals the lid. Smear a little on the lid threads to lubricate them. Smear a little on the CO2 valve rubber bands to prevent leakage and refit them.

4) Reassemble all components.

5) Add a little water and ensure the float sits with the bulb upwards and the tube immersed as soon as there is enough water for it to start to float. If it doesn't, angle the connector to the rear of the tap to keep it the right way up. If there are issues with the float assembly, the complete assembly can be replaced quite cheaply, so it's not worth risking a brew if it's prone to falling apart or the tube has got a bit manky.

6) Fill to about 80% capacity of water, replace the lid firmly without over-tightening and inject CO2 or compressed air until the relief valve blows. Leave it overnight and check that there is still plenty of pressure the following day with no liquid leaks. (omit this once you have some confidence with getting it sealed)

7) Empty the keg, flush out with a sanitising solution once more and rinse if required, then fill with beer, prime and replace the lid, again avoiding overtightening.

8) Keep an eye on the keg over the first few days of conditioning, occasionally releasing a little beer to check that the pressure is not escaping.

This sounds like a right pain, I know, but only takes 10 minutes or so once you've done it a few times. It's a lot less hassle than bottling, after all.

Great tips. I have been having massive problems with my KK top taps...I will try these tips to see if I can bring these back into service...I have been bottling 10 gallons in one go (which takes up nearly a full day)

 

[evanvine]

I emptied 5 litres of infected beer from my keg down the drain today

What was the infection??

 

[Sandimas]

Must admit that I've been having all sorts of problems with my top-tap barrel, which worked fine for a year then sprang a slow leak that I'm struggling to track down. Gasses up fine but loses pressure in 12 hrs or so, so the leak must be tiny. I've borrowed a mates spare lid and that pressurises fine, so it must be my lid, but I've replaced all the washers and did the foam test but still can't find the darned leak.

It's dented my confidence in them too, best tip I can offer is to draw off a sample 24hrs after kegging and then fairly regularly, just to check you have pressure.

 

[TRXnMe]

Must admit that I've been having all sorts of problems with my top-tap barrel, which worked fine for a year then sprang a slow leak that I'm struggling to track down. Gasses up fine but loses pressure in 12 hrs or so, so the leak must be tiny. I've borrowed a mates spare lid and that pressurises fine, so it must be my lid, but I've replaced all the washers and did the foam test but still can't find the darned leak.

It's dented my confidence in them too, best tip I can offer is to draw off a sample 24hrs after kegging and then fairly regularly, just to check you have pressure.

You can get a brand new lid off eBay for a tenner, including O ring and S30 valve :)