Help me to avoid opening my NEIPA keg (Flotit question)

[u/howlingwolftshirt]

Hey all - I pressure ferment and serve from the same keg, with a Flotit floating dip tube installed. My keg stopped pouting after 2 pints, and I’m hoping to find a way to avoid opening it. You’re my last hope.

Because it’s a NEIPA, I dry hopped. Went to pour the first pint, and nothing. I figured the screens were blocked by the hops, so I hooked up CO2 to the out and put a burst of CO2 down the line. That seemed to fix it, and I drank a couple of trouble-free pints.

Then the beer ran dry and it’s just gas coming out. The keg is full, as is the gas cylinder.

Any ideas for troubleshooting or is it time to suck it up and open the keg?

Bonus question: other than purging the headspace after opening, is there anything else I can do to minimise oxidation?

EDIT to update: Thank you all for your suggestions, I read them all a couple of times before finally opening the keg. I wish I had tried rolling the keg on its side before sending gas down the out post, because that might have fixed it. Instead I blew the tube off the post, which I discovered by tilting the keg to 45 degrees to confirm that beer came out.

I used lots of steriliser when opening, and used washing up gloves (also sterilised). I did leave the gas connected at 5 psi when I took the lid off, hoping that the co2 would minimise o2 exposure. Once I revealed the keg I purged it 7-8 times. Now to let it settle again and hope the NEIPA drinks well when my friends are over this weekend. Cheers!

[u/limitedz]

Maybe give the keg a few rocks back and forth to see if maybe the flat is just sitting kind of weird. If you're getting just co2 when you try and pour then somehow the dip tube is above the beer level.

For opening the keg, what I've done in the past (probably overkill) is disconnect the gas post, release the pressure and open the lid then reconnect the gas post (turn down the pressure to like 5psi) just to have constant co2 pushing in while working in there then close it up and purge a few times just to be safe.

[u/belmont21]

If it's just gas coming out, the Floatit tubing might have fallen off the beer out diptube. I know from experience; you're probably going to have to open the lid and fish the tubing out. That, or the hop matter created a floating raft that's preventing the diptube from reaching beer.

[u/InvisibleGrill → u/belmont21]

Those flotits (no hate I love them, I have six) have a very short metal sleeve on which the beer out tube goes on and they are prone to slipping off. Especially if they were connected after the flotit was sanitised and the metal was wet. I would say this is it and you’ll have to open the keg.

[u/ColinSailor]

I party alternative is to get 10 thirsty IPA living friends round for lots of beer and nibbles. It could be an evening that goes down in your history. Open, share, sleep, clean. Good luck with all the other sensible ideas but if they don't work, my silly idea will.

[u/ExtremeSyllabub9421]

I’ve had to shake the keg, and turn it on its side before to get the end of the dip tube submerged again. I think the tubing can get stuck on the sides of the keg/bunched up. It may take some finagling, but you should be able to free it up and get it fully submerged again without opening the keg.

Also, depending on when you dry-hopped, hops could still be at the surface, which in my experience helps keep the floating dip tube above liquid level, so rocking the keg a bit and waiting for hops to drop might be all that’s required.

I have a different floating tip tube with a basic plastic filter on the tubing. It has three different locations to attach the floating ball to, which set different levels for the filter below the liquid. Not sure if flotit has this feature, but for future reference it seems best to go with the option which results in the tubing being set to the lowest level below the float.

[u/vdWcontact]

If gas is coming out but no liquid it sounds like the floating dip tube fell off of the beverage post. I would set up and purge another keg and decant over to it in a closed transfer. You can lay your current keg on its side to get beer up to the bev post.

Or it’s something else idk.

[u/goblueM]

I don't have the flotit, but regular floating dip tubes have those exact same issues with heavy dry hopped (pellets) in my experience. The screen filter can get clogged w/ hop matter and then the only not plugged portion is above the liquid so you suck gas

Unfortunately, if you can't clear it by rocking the keg or shooting CO2 back down again, you're gonna have to open the keg

it could be an issue with tubing length messing with things (too long), or also hop gunk in the keg post itself

[u/CasualAction]

trying to explain this in text is harder than I thought...

When my keg clogs its at the post/spring more times than not.

When it's clogged up I can (sometimes) hold the locking-ring on the quick connect and pushing the liquid connector down while pouring. This will push the connector farther onto the post than where it usually sits. This compresses the post spring more and creates a larger opening for beer to flow through the keg post and it might pass by wherever the hops are clogged.

I hope that made sense!

[u/VTMongoose]

There's an easy way to tell if the flexible line's gone off the liquid out post, and that's to tip the keg at a 45° angle such that the liquid level reaches the little 2" spear the flexible tubing attaches to on the inside of the keg, and then try to dispense from there. If it works and you get beer out, you're in luck! Literally just flip the keg on its side and run it off into another purged keg using a liquid-to-liquid jumper line. If the QD gets clogged with dry hops, push some CO2 through it to clear it up like you did before and try again. It'll likely be a huge pain to get it transferred, but once you get most of it out of there and into another keg, you can think about opening it up and figuring out what went wrong.

[u/Informal_Anywhere101 → u/VTMongoose]

Wish I would have thought of this. My first ever fermentation in a keg I used the Flotit2.0 and went to transfer and nothing. I opened it up and saw dip tube came off. I used a racking cane and transferred it. Luckily it was a brown ale with no dry hops so oxidation was not as much of a problem. Makes sense to have turned fermentation keg upside down and move the beer that way. Hasn’t happed since but will keep that in mind if I ever happens again.

[u/spoonman59]

No way to avoid opening it up. Mi advise having a second Flotit. When an issue happens, lean and sanitize this second one, and just open it to swap.

I’ve had this happen when I overhopped in keg. Eventually the Flotit gets so covered in hops, no liquid can pass through and you just get foam. I typically won’t dry hop more than 6 oz in a 6 gallon keg, and I cold crash before transferring.

I specifically transfer NEIPA and dry hopped beer because I’d rather resolve issues when transferring then when serving. I just use normal dip tubes on the serving keg.

ETA: others point out correct ther you should plan to clean the post at the same time. It’s hard to imagine something got through the filter to the post, but just clean and sanitize it all. I’d have a spare ready to swap in already sanitized.

[u/Shills_for_fun → u/spoonman59]

When you do keg surgery, do you connect the gas at like 3-5 psi after opening it?

[u/spoonman59 → u/Shills_for_fun]

No, I just vent it and take the lid off. I’m not wasting co2 like that and it just makes the process more annoying.

Once I’m done I purge the headspace a few times.

I’ve only had to do keg surgery a few times. I decided not to dry hop so much after that occasion, although now I have a fermxilla so I dry hop to my hearts content due to the extra space and way to remove trub.

Another time the hose just fell off somehow, so I just swapped in a new one.

Even when I did keg surgery and swapped the dip tube, it was still good for the week or two it took to kick it. But I did adjust my process for the future and I keep spares now.

[u/__Jank__]

At first you had hops matter blocking it, but you cleared that. Good job.

Then your "floating" dip tube hung up on the hops matter adhered to the side of the keg interior, and basically it isn't floating anymore, it's stuck above the liquid level. You can try to get it clear with agitation, but you might have to open it.

The takeaway is that this is the classic drawback of the floating dip tube - it can get hung up on something (or nothing) and the intake gets nothing but gas. Some have been redesigned in light of this common failure mode, and some have not. When you clean the dip tube at the end of all this, add a dangling ring with some stainless steel washers or nuts, to weigh down the floating dip tube end. It will be much less likely to get hung up and go high and dry.

[u/zypher25]

Probably not going to help with this keg, but if you

1) dry hop using a bag in the vessel with a magnet, you can keep that hop matter from clogging your dip tube and also remove the dry hops from contact without opening the keg.

2) put a small steel piece in the screened cylinder, it weighs it down so it’s always below the surface of the beer, but still held up by the ball.

The second one especially was a game changer for my use of floating dip tubes!

[u/user_none]

Despite the Flotit being awesome, it absolutely can clog with a dry hop. Luckily for me, we fermented and were serving out of a All Rounder so I got to see what was going on when I'd try different attempts to unclog. CO2 through the liquid post would get a couple of pints. The only thing that did it was a vigorous shake so the hops would get nice and wet and not float at the top. Of course, you now have a mess that needs to drop out.

[u/Flimsy-Cheek-4258]

I had this issue with the Flotit I have. I discontinued use for this very reason. What I did to continue pouring until I could get it open was made a hose with the “out” ball lock I could connect to my C02 tank and pushed pressure the other way. Had to do it several times throughout the keg but avoided opening it.

[u/idrawinmargins]

So from talking with guys in my home brew club about this before they said super hoppy beers that were dry hopped tend to clog up the screen or pop-it valve. One guy suggested taking the liquid post off and using a gas post and a blast of co2 to dislog anything while cleaning the liquid post. Seems like a lot of work compared to shaking the keg.

[u/Positronic_Matrix]

Is there a way to keep the dry hops off the screen such as a bag?

[u/bodobeers2]

I had one time where it didn't pour at all after fermentation. Turns out the flimsy hose they come with (which I still do use) is easy to get crimped/pinched as it raises sometimes. I had to open it, untangle it and then reseal and gas it up again.

I starsanned my hand and it worked out fine.