Leaking top caps on Young's type beer barrels

Have you found flat beer in your Young's type keg after carbonation and maturing?

Yes - what a disappointment.

Has the barrel been used a time or too, and the washer under the cap become distorted?

Me too - I have two brews flat as can be - I'm fuming, but what do you expect when you buy cheap?

I started looking for solutions.... New washers for two or three quid. Yes - we can do that, but then I found a thread on a home brew supplier's forum forum that shows another way. You can reform the washers VERY easily.

Take the distorted spongy washer and place it in a third of a mug of boiling water.

Stick the mug in a microwave and give it a one minute blast and then let it cool a little.

Microwave it again and after a period of cooling down the washer will look almost new. This was true of even badly distorted washers.

Re-fit the washer to the cap MAKING VERY SURE that the wsher is correctly located INSIDE the ridges that are meant to hold it in place. It is quite easy to stuff the washer in and it NOT be properly located inside the groove the whole way around. This may be why mine were so badly distorted before I re-formed them.

The thread also suggests that the washer be placed in the freezer for a while before re-fitting the washer to the cap, re-priming the keg and fitting the cap. I'm not sure what the freezer treatment achieves, but it will probably firm up the rubber and that might make it stay in shape when you screw the cap on.

As usual - don't overtighten the cap. A firm screwing on is all that is needed.

The original article also warns about excess use of Vaseline. If it gets under the washer it leads to the seal slipping out of the recess in the cap and can cause pressure loss through the seal being badly fitted. I put my hand up to that. My defective seals were a tad greasy all around.

I've got a couple of the cheap pressure barrels and a couple of top tap king kegs. I find the cheap ones much more reliable.
I overtightened mine first time, you don't need a killer grip when you use vaseline, finger tight is fine. I didn't realised that and strangled the life out of the washer .
I haven't had the king kegs long but the tap always seems to leak co2 .

stevey said:

I've got a couple of the cheap pressure barrels and a couple of top tap king kegs. I find the cheap ones much more reliable.
I overtightened mine first time, you don't need a killer grip when you use vaseline, finger tight is fine. I didn't realised that and strangled the life out of the washer .
I haven't had the king kegs long but the tap always seems to leak co2 .

Click to expand...

That's annoying. I used to have a king keg about thirty some years ago. All I can remember about it was the shape and that it had a float and a top tap. I gave up brewing shortly after buying it and threw it away during a garage clear out decades ago.


From what I remember, the tap was in the airspace of the keg. Is that right? If so, it must have a washer under the base of the tap (the body). If so, a bit of Vaseline on teh washer and careful tightening might help. You could pressurise with co2 and the barrel filled with water and then you could maybe explore around the tap joint with soapy water like you were testing an inner tube from a bike.... That might help identify where the leak is - not sure, but it must be possible to seal the thing or they would be no good at all.

Two of my cheap Young's kegs have slightly out of round necks on them. They are slightly oval, but the caps screw on firmly so as long as the washer's are in good nick they work.

I also found that (particularly with a new co2 cap) it is worth checking the brass nut underneath is tight enough/more than finger tight - a spanner can be used to ensure this.