It is so difficult to connect a keg liner

[Long Ngo]

Hi everyone,

I have done 3 batches with BeerDroid and found that it is really difficult for me to fit a keg liner into a liner connector. It is not as simple and effortless as shown in Brewart 101 video below.

Does anyone else have the same problem or I just got some faulty parts?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Long Ngo

[Captain 3 Droids]

18 minutes ago, Long Ngo said:

Hi everyone,

I have done 3 batches with BeerDroid and found that it is really difficult for me to fit a keg liner into a liner connector. It is not as simple and effortless as shown in Brewart 101 video below.

Does anyone else have the same problem or I just got some faulty parts?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Long NGO, Mark here and welcome to the forum. I don’t use the Beerflo keg system and therefore can’t help you much however a regular, Rob should be on soon and he’s up to speed with the units.

What styles do you enjoy and how have your other brews been?

[Brian Bella]

I am doing my first batch and I'm having an impossible time screwing the top onto the keg liner.  Anyone have tips?

[Brian Bella]

Long,

Have same issue as you.

[Captain 3 Droids]

14 hours ago, Long Ngo said:

Hi everyone,

I have done 3 batches with BeerDroid and found that it is really difficult for me to fit a keg liner into a liner connector. It is not as simple and effortless as shown in Brewart 101 video below.

Does anyone else have the same problem or I just got some faulty parts?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Will tag this to BrewArt Tech, Liam will sort it out for you.

@BrewArtTech

[Long Ngo]

I just tried to screw as much as I could without cross threading. Some kegs look OK now, some have leaks. There was one keg that I could screw tightly but then I ended up breaking the liner.

I am surprised no one has talked about this before

[Rob Courtney]

Video up from me on how to do it

[Captain 3 Droids]

8 minutes ago, Rob Courtney said:

Video up from me on how to do it

Thread “Keg liner cap onto Keg liner video”

[Dustin Frothman]

I discovered a bit of a trick when kegging today. I've learnt a lot from everyone's videos and reckon I've got the keg liner cap to keg liner technique down, so much so that when I connected the first one so quickly on the first attempt today that I thought I must have made a mistake. After a very careful inspection it was clear that I'd got it right. Great success!

So onto the second liner and cap and do you reckon I could get it to seat properly? I was actually getting sore hands and starting to work up a bit of a sweat. I can see how others have ended up a bit frustrated at times.

I've got quite a lot of kegs so thought I'd just take a keg liner cap from another box and try that instead. Twist, click, tighten and got it seated first go.

So perhaps sometimes there are just pairings of keg liner caps and liner threads that won't mate nicely. Yes this is less than perfect but we are dealing with injection moulded plastic components and perhaps the manufacturing tolerances are a bit loose.

Anyway, if this tale helps anyone else then it may save you some unnecessary frustration.

🍻

[Captain 3 Droids]

I wonder if keg lube on the threads etc would help a bit. I find it’s great for a lot of the ss keg components.

Eg. https://www.ikegger.com/products/food-safe-keg-lubricant

[Dustin Frothman]

10 hours ago, Barrelboy said:

I wonder if keg lube on the threads etc would help a bit. I find it’s great for a lot of the ss keg components.

Eg. https://www.ikegger.com/products/food-safe-keg-lubricant

I didn't even know this existed.

Great idea. I'll get some.

[Erik Denkers]

I definitely struggled with this on the first couple of kegs, but I have it down now.  It is very tricky and not easy to do, but it definitely can be done.  This appears to be a problem for many people and I do agree that they really need to go back and redesign this part of the system.  They definitely make it look too easy in the video.  🤪

What seems to work for me is to apply a great deal of even pressure on the black bit.  I am pushing it down pretty hard while turning and making sure that it is being kept straight so that you don't cross thread the darn thing.  I watch it very carefully while turning and if it looks like it is not going on straight, I immediately stop and turn it back a bit and adjust the force some on one side or the other to keep it straight.  Once it get's past a certain point, it continues to go on properly.

I hope this helps some.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Erik Denkers

[Dustin Frothman]

Just bumping this topic to share my recent kegging experience.

I've been fortunate to be the recipient of some replacement keg liner connectors from Brewart in the last few weeks as I had a couple disintegrate under pressure in the keg. This is unrelated to the liner/cap connection issue but means I have some brand new ones at hand.

My first connector to liner mating worked flawlessly using the accepted technique.

I couldn't get the second liner connected no matter how carefully I tried. I am gripping the neck of the liner as per the video and being careful not to handle the foil at all. Gripping the neck of the liner will result in sore fingers if you're at it for a bit. 😬

I was waiting for the Droid to heat up the brew to kegging temperature so walked away from it a couple of times and did something else. I must have gone back and tried over the course of about an hour without luck.

In the end I just kept swapping through the various connectors I have until I found one that would mate properly with the liner thread. I think I got it on the fourth go. Next time I'm going to clean and sanitise half a dozen or so before starting to try and save a bit of time.

Whilst I mentioned in my previous post that this is another trick you can employ I don't think this is a workable solution in the long run and the thread tolerances will need addressing.

[Dustin Frothman]

I'm probably talking to myself here but if this assists anyone then it's worth typing.

I kegged the GOAT Amber Ale today and got around the keg connector issues I'd been having by cleaning and sanitising five of them beforehand. There was one connector that didn't want to mate nicely with a keg liner so I simply swapped it out for one that did. I was also able to make the connections by only handling the connector and white spigot as per the instruction video.

The process today was far simpler and kegging was a breeze.

I do think that when the Brewart keg and Beerlfo components all work together that it really is a very elegant system.

[Damian Ryan]

I have virtually given up on kegging despite spending a lot of money on a brew flow and kegs.

I struggle every time and have had beers go off due to bad connections. I have a mechanical engineering background so I know how to scre fittings together, but this seems impossible.

I recently bought a bottling kit and am just using that.

The brew flow is still sitting on my bench with the beer droid but sadly is useless.

The video makes it look so easy but in reality its so frustrating.

[Captain 3 Droids]

6 minutes ago, Damian Ryan said:

I have virtually given up on kegging despite spending a lot of money on a brew flow and kegs.

I struggle every time and have had beers go off due to bad connections. I have a mechanical engineering background so I know how to scre fittings together, but this seems impossible.

I recently bought a bottling kit and am just using that.

The brew flow is still sitting on my bench with the beer droid but sadly is useless.

The video makes it look so easy but in reality its so frustrating.

Sorry to here Damian, if you haven’t already why not give Liam a ring. I’ve got the funny feeling from other comments

 that there were a bad batch of those liners.

Cheers Mark

[Dustin Frothman]

@Damian Ryan I'm sorry to hear that. I agree those connections can be a bit frustrating to get right.

There is a bit of a 'trick' to it as has been mentioned quite a few times on here - the backwards turn whilst applying even pressure to get the thread to seat before securing does work. However I have found that some keg cap connectors will not play nicely and hence my process detailed above and it is also tricky to do this whist holding only the white thread spigot (as recommended by Brewart).

I hope you don't give up on your Brewflo completely as if my experiences are anything to go by it is possible to overcome the challenges with this and the results are impressive. 

Im my opinion draught beer at home beats bottles hands down and beer in PET bottles will never sit quite right with me anyway. Though there is nothing wrong with using bottling if you prefer.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Dustin Frothman

[Damian Ryan]

Thank you for the feed back @Dustin Frothman and @Barrelboy. I will try the kegs again next batch, 1 keg and the rest bottles. I tried the backwards turn, but nothing would line up those threads, so frustrating!

[Dustin Frothman]

For what it’s worth, yesterday’s kegging effort was the smoothest yet. I santised five connectors as usual. The first went on perfectly first go, the second required some persuasion, a little prayer (I’m not the believing type), some begging, a warning, some swearing, and then ‘bang’ and it was on. All up, maybe 5 minutes of effort. 

OK so this is what iKegger and the like don’t tell you - yeah you can foam out and fill a keg pretty quick but you can still get a gas leak somewhere, your beer line is too warm or too short, you run out of gas mid keg, the kegerrataor dies or costs you a fortune to run, the wife unplugs it accidentally, the cat sits on it etc.

Seriously, if you like the Brewflo (like I do), work through the user teething errors and the just enjoy simple “pull the lever” tap beer. It’s pretty awesome.

[Captain 3 Droids]

8 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

For what it’s worth, yesterday’s kegging effort was the smoothest yet. I santised five connectors as usual. The first went on perfectly first go, the second required some persuasion, a little prayer (I’m not the believing type), some begging, a warning, some swearing, and then ‘bang’ and it was on. All up, maybe 5 minutes of effort. 

OK so this is what iKegger and the like don’t tell you - yeah you can foam out and fill a keg pretty quick but you can still get a gas leak somewhere, your beer line is too warm or too short, you run out of gas mid keg, the kegerrataor dies or costs you a fortune to run, the wife unplugs it accidentally, the cat sits on it etc.

Seriously, if you like the Brewflo (like I do), work through the user teething errors and the just enjoy simple “pull the lever” tap beer. It’s pretty awesome.

Agree, I said somewhere else here that I would have gone the flo way if it had come out many years earlier, before I bought all the kegging gear and set up. However the system I have is tops and wouldn’t sell to change over.

[J P]

Very on the fence about going the 10L iKegger (or similar) route.  
 

waiting so long for the new kegs to come out, now with 3 droids I’ll need a way to step up storage and dispensing I reckon.   
 

hard to beat the brew flo though in terms of flexibility and versatility. 5L kegs seem to empty pretty quickly though.   
 

lost a keg today to a leak of some sort.  Bummed but it’s only one out of 8-10 so far so that’s still pretty good odds.  

[Paul84]

Good news guys . I have got some new and improved keg liner adapters 😲😲😲. Talking to Brewart they have had another crack at them.... @Rob Courtney, no more need for your video , officially 2 seconds to screw it on straight. Will let you know how it looks in 2 weeks after fermentation 😁😁😁

[Rob Courtney]

1 hour ago, Paul84 said:

Good news guys . I have got some new and improved keg liner adapters 😲😲😲. Talking to Brewart they have had another crack at them.... @Rob Courtney, no more need for your video , officially 2 seconds to screw it on straight. Will let you know how it looks in 2 weeks after fermentation 😁😁😁

They were perfectly fine as they were....:)

 

Seriously though, good news that they have fixed an issue that people were having

[Paul84]

TBH I have always persevered with the keg adapters. The system is great and predominately easy to use. I have done dozens of kegs and only ever lots one through failure of the liner , which i blamed on the faffing around with this adapter. This went on seamless this time and is tight against the collar of the liner. I also didnt have to feel like I was putting any pressure on the liner so that was nice. On the inside of the adapter the threads are narrower and maybe more defined.  See photos , first one is old adapter and second is new adapter 😄

[Eltham Brauhaus]

On 17/07/2020 at 9:07 AM, Dustin Frothman said:

I didn't even know this existed.

Great idea. I'll get some.

It is a fantastic product and is excellent if you smear a little around the Droid lid seal at the start of each batch. Makes removing the lid later on a breeze