Corny Keg Refurbish.

Early on in December we got a corny keg and some fittings to give ‘Wrence for Christmas to help him on his way to setting up a kegerator. I got it from Northern Brewer but they don’t clean or refurbish so I decided to do it myself. I waited to do this post since he reads this and it would have given away his gift. I have 3 kegs of my own but have never taken them apart as they came clean and holding pressure. More on that later…

Basically I just took it apart, soaked everything in PBW, replaced all the o-rings and put it back together with some keg lube. I left the poppets as they seemed to hold pressure fine.

Since I’ve done this one though I’ve been going through mine and giving them a good cleaning and new o-rings. I also got some “universal” poppets and since mine have leaked in the past I replaced them. Turns out this might not have been a good idea. My Holiday Ale kicked over my break (a beer which really grew on me over time so was sad to see it go) which enabled me to get my new IPA on tap. The new poppets helped my kegs hold pressure and have good seals but when trying to connect, it was really hard to get the ball lock fitting down, and when I finally did on the liquid side, only a trickle came out the tap. So I took the new poppet out and put in old one back in. Seemed to do the trick, but I guess I’m back to where I was. Maybe I’ll replace them with regular poppets that fit my kegs.

Then I noticed my gas was almost out. Great. I went through this one really quick. I know I use more gas these days with force carbing all my beers and blasting secondaries with CO2 and whatnot, but I’m going to test my system for leaks when I get gas back on. I think something may be amiss. Also, I was moving my kegerator around some over break and I may have knocked the regulator and unscrewed it partially or caused a leak, I’m not sure. I do know that I’ve gone through a 10lb and a 5lb tank since March. Seems extreme. I’m also wondering if I’m getting low fills. The place I normally go to is only open 8-4 M-F so it’s tough to get to. I actually meant to go over my break but was busy and forgot. The small homebrew store in Foxboro does exchanges for 5lb tanks though and they are open Th-F 6-8pm and Saturdays. So I’ll be calling him tomorrow and hopefully driving down there to exchange my 5lb tank. I’m going to weigh mine from now on when empty and full and start keeping track of things, as well as check all my connections.