Stuck Poppet

This morning I tried tyo isolate a corny keg of a Northern German Altbier I've been nursing along.

To my surprise, when I removed the CO2 line from the gas side pin lock post I could hear gas escaping.  I first thought it was the bleed off from the regulator, but then, to my dismay, I discovered the poppet was leaking.

I have three plans in mind.  First Jack up the regilator to 35 or 40 PSI and hit the keg to see if that forces the poppet closed.  Down side of that is will the 35 PSI overcarbonate the beer?

Second, remove & replace the badly behaving poppet.  Down side, the risk of contamination during R&R.

Third, and maybe most attractive, let the gas connected to the keg and get busy emptying it as soon as possible...  The down side, any CO2 leak would drain my 20 lb cylinder, (Although I have no evidence of a leak and the system behaved during the 10 day carbonation cycle.)

This brew is special.  I and my nephew made it for my son's wedding.  We plan to serve it to the guests who attend a party at our house in honor of the newly weds.  So, I'd like it to be perfect.  The wedding is in two weeks so that's my hold time.

Has anyone experienced this?  What did you do?  Any thoughts?

I am fairly new to kegs, but have had something similar happen.  I popped of a beer connectpr once and had the beer out post liberally spray me and the surrounding walls with beer!

Now, if I have any reason to remove a beer line, I bleed off any pressure by pulling the relief valve ring before fooling with the beer connector.

What happened in my case was just that the poppet for some reason had not come squarely back onto its seat and so did not seal properly.

I simply sprayed all the surrounding area with star san,  removed and re applied the post and all was fine.

You might just try putting your gas connector back on - that might fix things, if not I would just pull the post to see what is going on.

When I decided to get into kegging,  I stocked up an all the spares I thought OI might possibly need, sop I have spare posts, connectors, poppets, relief valve, lid and O-rings.  My idea was to do all I could to handle any problem that might arise with a full keg of beer.  I do have seven kegs now,  and not often are they all full at once, so i suppose it would also be another option to transfer to another keg if I had to.

Brian

Thanks for your reply and advice, Brian.  I think I'll do the following:
 
1.) Sanitize the top of the keg, including the post.
2.) Shut off the CO2 and bleed the keg to atmosphere
3.)  Remove the gas post, cover the hole w/ plastic wrap, rebuild the post/poppet & reassemble.
4.)  Do the same with the beer post.

My kegs don't have pull rings for pressure relief so I'll just disconnect the CO2 line & let 'er rip.

Earlier, with this keg, I had the same experience with the beer side that you did.  Cleaning out my beer cooler is on the "To Do" list for this weekend...

Don't expose your beer to a risk of infection. 

The poppet has nothing to do with sealing the keg when the lines are attached.  The seal is formed by the disconnect ONLY when the line is attached. 

Attach the gas line, presurize the keg, and leave it alone.

I agree with Tom. If the post is leaking because of a poorly seated poppet, then just leave gas in connected (SEALED) at desired pressure. Don't remove.

Ok..like your other suggestion as well...get a drinking.

Recommendations to leave the gas connected certainly make sense - I think I read the initial post too quickly and assumed that the poster wanted to transport the full keg under pressure to an event !

Brian.

If it's not leaking while the CO2 is attached, I'd say leave it attached. Figure it out when the precious brew is gone.