What's happening here, can it be saved?

[Robert Pretty]

Midlands Pale Ale keg is leaking, first time I have seen this amount, have already tip some out. Is it a leaking liner. Seen a small about before , not to this extent. Is it a lost cause or can it be saved? 

[Rob Courtney]

How old?

[Robert Pretty]

Kegged 4 days ago. 

[Dustin Frothman]

Hi Robert,

That one could be a faulty liner. There was a batch where the weld between the bags and the spigot had flaws. According to the wonderful customer support team there it was me that alerted them to that one so all and any feedback is always appreciated.

Please get in touch with Brewart  and they will sort it out for you.

As for the beer, I’d just leave it until it’s ready, stick the keg in the Brewflo and see how you go.

 I’ve done the same with a keg like that when it’s happened to me and the beer was just fine.

[Robert Pretty]

Thanks Dustin, tipped a bit yesterday, to morning it was full again. Third time I have drained it. I dumped the lot to morning. I think your right about the liner. It was one from a new pack. Should I throw the pack? If I knew now the problems I have had with the Brewflo, I would of spent the $600 on a two tap keg system. Got the Coopers Australian IPA in the droid at the moment don't want to loose that to a faulty keg liner.

 

[Rod Holzwart]

My first kegging experience and I too have had the same problem. I was concerned that I’d done something wrong but I guess I’ll be ringing them to query.

[Captain 3 Droids]

56 minutes ago, Rod Holzwart said:

My first kegging experience and I too have had the same problem. I was concerned that I’d done something wrong but I guess I’ll be ringing them to query.

Hi Rod and welcome to the forum a good bunch here. You should here from some that keg for the BeerDroid as I suspect they question if you have updated connections.

 

[Dustin Frothman]

2 hours ago, Rod Holzwart said:

My first kegging experience and I too have had the same problem. I was concerned that I’d done something wrong but I guess I’ll be ringing them to query.

action

Hi Rod, welcome. I'm sorry to see that's the results of your first experience. That must be really disappointing for you. Please get in touch with Brewart Support to give them a chance to sort things out for you. You won't be left wanting.

After a year or so of kegging with the Brewflo side of the system here's my observations on which issues can occur to produce this undesired result:

• Keg is overfilled. Either user error due to the index marks on the Droid being out by addition of extra ingredients in the brew, stainless steel hop balls or suchlike which may displace the liquid above the 10L index mark. Or the liner has not unraveled and filled correctly because it was twisted on insertion into the keg or an airlock has occurred during filling. The little breather hole on the filler cap needs to be aligned correctly with the breather hole on the keg filling adaptor.
• Keg liner is not threaded onto the connector correctly. Previously this was a difficult task to perform however the new style connector makes this extremely simple. It's difficult to tell which version of the connector you have until you screw the liner on.
• Keg liner internal bag (the clear bit inside) is damaged. It may have been torn or damaged from mishandling whilst threading the liner to the connector. This was a real issue with the older style connectors because they were so difficult to attach. The Brewart recommended technique is to only handle the liner by the white plastic spigot.
• Keg liner itself is faulty. There was a batch of liners that had several manufacturing flaws. Some may unfortunately still be in circulation or if like me you purchased a bunch at once then it became very difficult to work out which were the good ones and a trial and error process results.
• Keg cap (the bit with the air and liquid valves on it) is faulty. Some of the caps don't make a snug fit with the connector and even when screwed down by the metal collar can separate and allow pressure (and beer) to escape. I'd also argue that some of the silicon O-rings are either undersized or misshaped and prevent a good seal being made.
• Beer has not completely finished primary fermentation. This is my guess. You could of course perform your own test with a hydrometer to be certain. I've never bothered to do this so just leave my brews in the Droid at kegging temperature for an extra 48 hours to be sure and I find that this has the added benefit of preventing the Brewflo from pouring glassfuls of foam as some users have reported.

I may have missed one or two here so will chime back in with more if I think of them and it's warranted.

I've been a huge supporter of the Brewflo because it has so many benefits but sadly the kegging process lets it down. Some of these issues at face value probably seem like they should be an easy fix. I suspect in the current environment where it's quite challenging to get things done, the fixes are taking longer to roll out than hoped.

I have 20 kegs. I reckon Brewart Support have swapped out at least 5 or 6 kegs worth of parts for me as well as replaced many many ingredients. I cannot fault their customer service and generosity. 

I kegged 2 beers the other week using the last of my kegs; brand new out of the box. Unfortunately 3 are leaking so I'm pretty frustrated too and am going to make the move to stainless steel kegs and a kegerator a little earlier than I had planned. More than anything I just want to have multiple beers on tap simultaneously.

I'll keep my Brewflo for now and have been marking (with the wife's nail polish nonetheless) the keg caps or connectors that have failed me. I think out of the 20 kegs I probably still have 5 with issues and will just avoid using these until Brewart has a chance to do a wholesale fix for us all.

in the interest of being as balanced as possible, once I move over to stainless steel kegs I'll be sure to report on all the issues I have with those and my kegerator too. It really bugs me when people criticise a product and move onto something else but fail to give you an unbiased review of their new experience.

Good luck!

[Robert Pretty]

Feel your pain Rod. I know Brewart have been working on a new keg cap design, that they are hoping to release before Christmas. I have had only one keg go like that, and have kegged many, I feel mine was a faulty liner. 

 

[Beer Monkey]

I've had 3 out of 4 kegs do this in the last two brews I made. Before that had 5 beer lines burst when hooking them up in the BrewFlow. Luckily after the first beer line burst, I learned to be ready to disconnect the line from the keg so only lost a little bit, still messy though. And then I got the wrong size spikes with my new kegs recently.

Going to hold on buying anymore from BrewArt until they sort out the quality control. It's a shame as before this everything has been great.