Pressure Barrel Hissing / Leaking

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Foggy1010

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Hi All,

I am new to home brew and bought a starter kit (equipment) and a beer kit, fermentation went well (i think) and i decided to bottle after around 10 days when my hydrometer reading did not change fora couple of days.

I filled 12 bottles and put the rest in a pressure barrel on Thursday, the past couple of days there has been a leak from near the seal to the tap at the bottom which was quite foamy and i did add Vaseline.

The more worrying thing is when i checked on it earlier it was hissing from the top valve near the outer rubber ring, i think i have a S30 valve to add co2 canisters. The hissing has now stopped and there has been no drips at the bottom for a couple of hours.

Did i potentially add too much sugar to the barrel? as the bottles seem fine but i obviously don't want to open them yet.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated, just worrying as its my first brew!!!

Thanks in advance.
 
Try this
Basic beginners guide to brewing your own beer from a kit - The HomeBrew Forum
Normally, if there is little or no pressure to dispense your beer after a few days in the warm after adding priming sugar, you have a leak. By the sounds of it you have two.
To fix the tap put the PB on its side and vent the PB, then try to fix the leak. PTFE tape on the thread sometimes helps.
Then put the PB back to normal position and try to fix the leaks on the cap. When you think you have fixed it, and if you have an S30 cylinder, I suggest you put a small amount of gas into the PB then see if it holds the pressure and/or go round all the cap joints with soapy water. If it's gas tight, charge it with further gas.
I never put more than 95g priming sugar into a PB. And whether you put more sugar in, or overcharge with gas, the pressure relief device should in theory vent to protect the PB from overpressure.
 
Thanks for your response terrym.

I haven't tried dispensing beer from the pressure barrel yet as its only been in there for 4 days. Is it worth me dispensing a small amount from the tap so i can try and establish if there is pressure in the barrel or if its escaped?

There have been no drips from around the tap since last night and the hissing has stopped as well.

I added around 110g of sugar to the pressure barrel as per my beer kit instructions, it did advise 150g for 23L but as i put some into bottles i put a ratio of what was recommended.
 
Just to confirm. I put no more than 95g into a pressure barrel for 20+ litres of beer. More is really unnecessary since you start to to dispense foam rather than beer, at least initially, even more and you just vent the excess CO2 to protect the PB. PBs are fine for low carbed beers like ales, but cannot hold the pressure required for beers like AIPAs or lagers so they are better put into bottles.
You will have to draw off a little beer to find out if its pressurised or not. After 4 days in the warm the beer should be well on the way. Its always better to draw off beer after a few days to find out if you have a leak rather than find out weeks later. If your PB has leaked gas you will only be able to draw off a little beer before air glugs through the tap, so you should avoid that happening since it might spoil yoiur beer. However you will not spoil your beer by opening it up to mend leaks.
 
It could have been the pressure release valve letting out excess gas - I normally prime with 80g of sugar so yours was a little on the high side. Gassing up is exponential, produces more pressure in the first 4-5 days then starts to tail off, so you may have just hit the tipping point for the valve.

Just draw off a little beer to see if you have gas - you'll know if you do.
 
I think it may have been letting out the excess pressure, as the noise has stopped and the level in the pressure barrel has not dropped. I let a small amount out of the tap and it was carbonated and had a nice head so all seems to be good!

I've now moved it to a cold room as per the instructions for 1 week.
 

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