Mini keg disaster

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MrSarge

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Oct 27, 2019
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morning all,

it would appear that ive put too much sugar in my brewferm mini keg, it is pouring foam big time.. does anyone have any ideas of a way to save my precious homebrew! :(
 
If you dispense it all into a bucket, wait for the foam to subside and then pour it back in gently it will be OK. Use a funnel and hold the keg at 45 degrees. Or use a big jug.
 
I frequently transfer beer from my pressure barrels to my mini kegs. I fill a large jug and let it settle. Then I pour it into the keg until foam comes out. As all the bubbles contain CO2, this purges any air. Kegs have been fine for up to two weeks in the fridge. Longer is possible but I'm thirsty and that's as long as I've tried.
 
Im not familiar with this keg. Is there no way to bleed CO2 from it? If not a bleed valve could you turn it upside down and open the tap to bleed off some CO2?
There is a problem with this idea:

Pour a glass of (fizzy) beer. Start drinking it (you should have no problem with this). Ten minutes later, are you still drinking it? No? Well if you've drunk the entire glass you might have a problem completely unrelated to this thread. Yes? Is it completely flat and unpalatable? Of course it isn't. It takes time for the gas to come out of solution.

Reducing excess gas in beer is normal procedure for cask-conditioned, "Real Ale", style beers. It is known as "venting" and usually involves knocking into the beer cask a porous peg (soft spile) and leaving it maybe 24-36 hours before serving for some of the excess gas to disperse. For home-brew I use aquarium "bubble counters" to control the release of gas over many hours (I'll use them for over-pressurised keg beer too).

There is no point releasing the gas from the space above the beer unless you are willing to repeat the process every hour or so until the beer is back right again. Or else use @kelper's quick fix procedure.
 
Peebee is correct. I've dispensed beer from my top-tap pressure barrel until none comes out. But the beer inside is still well carbonated. If I leave it a day the headspace has regained pressure and I can dispense more beer. The same with kegs. When a mini keg is nearing empty I vent the remaining pressure and pour the last half pint into a glass. It's still 'fizzy'. Obviously, you can't leave beer too long with no top pressure or it will go flat.
 
Peebee is correct if you overcarb a keg you have to keep venting it as the beer releases the CO2 it will keep releasing the gas to equilibrium in the keg then release again and again until it is where you need it. Doing it once will not work
 
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