Advice on rescuing a leaking barrel

[pcrofts27]

Hi everyone,

did a Wherry recently, as recipe, no additions, although did it short to 20 litres. Syphoned out the FV into a barrel with 80 grams dextrose to prime. Took off 9 bottles and left rest in the barrel. This was 7 days ago. Checked last night and the tap is leaking slightly. Tried tightening it up, but that made matters worse and ended up spraying a pint or so round the room before I tipped the barrel on it's back. Can't seem to tighten the tap without it releasing pressure, so I assume it's knackered.
Question is, what do I do next? I could keep it on it's back and tip it up every time I want to take off a glass, but that'll just stir up the sediment. I've got to assume the leaky tap won't hold pressure anyway so the beer will probably be flat.
I'm thinking the best option is to add a bit more sugar and then bottle it all. Anyone got any better ideas? And if i do bottle it, does anyone know what would be a good amount of sugar to add. I'm not sure if the 80gm added last week will be gone by now, so I could be overdoing it and creating a load of bottle bombs.
All advice gratefully received.
cheers
paul

[Underground Joe]

As long as the barrel was somewhere warmish any priming sugar you added a week ago will be fermented out so it should be ok to add more and bottle it.

[tazzymutt]

just in the interests of clarity...

You wrote that the tap was leaking, was that a leak between the tap an the barrel or a leak through the tap? I ask because one of my barrels sometimes weeps very slightly through the tap when it first primes up, but this stops after I've drawn off a pint or two and has never caused me any concern (and the barrel is still holding pressure 20+ weeks after kegging...)

If the leak is between the thread and the barrel then removing the tap, lightly lubing the thread and seal with a tiny smear of Vaseline and refitting just tighter than bottomed out may sort the problem. The barrel can then be re-pressurized with CO2 from a sparklet adapter or an S30 cylinder (or you could reprime with a little more sugar and just try again).
Fingers crossed you will get away with it.

Happy brewing,


Ian.

[pcrofts27]

thanks for the advice chaps. It's a leak between the tap and the barrel, so while i've got it on it's back i'll try removing the tap and using a bit of vaseline of maybe PTFE tape to see if that does it. Iit's got the correct cap for using a sparkler, so i think i'll try one of those rather than sugar.
I'll let you know if it works.
paul

[suttonbrewer]

I have had the same problem. I think it is caused by the tapered threads tightening up before the rubber seal can do it's job. Solved by wrapping PTFE tape around tap threads and screwing tap back in.

[RAS]

I thought that when this happened to one of mine - there was a split at the outer end of the thread. The shape of it concentrates the stress there. This sounds the same - if tightening it makes it leak worse, don't tighten it any more! What I did was bought and sanitised a new tap, tipped the barrel on its back, fitted the tap and pressurised the barrel with CO2 straight away. It was fine. As long as there's no air getting in it will be ok for a few days until you fit the new tap.

I've had a couple of barrels split as well. What I've done then is let the pressure out (but no air in) until the new barrel came then siphoned the beer into the new barrel and re-primed with half the amount of sugar. Again, fine. And loads less sediment.

If it is just leaking around the washer then the right sized o-ring works much better than the rubbish seals they come with.

[pcrofts27]

Well. The damned tap snapped when i tried to take it off. There must have been a crack in it at the top of the thread.
Had to tip the beer out into a bucket, and then had to resort to a hacksaw blade to cut partway through what was left before i managed to get it out with a screwdriver and a bit of brute force. Luckily the new tap fitted wih no problems, so i put the beer back in and then primed with a gas bulb. At the moment it seems OK, but i'm a bit worried at the amount of time it's been there with no protective layer of CO2 over it. Just had a taste and it seemed OK, but am I best to get it drunk pretty quickly or will it be OK to keep for a few weeks to develop a bit more flavour?
cheers
paul

[tazzymutt]

You may get away with it if the beer went into the bucket and back to the keg with minimal splashing. However, if throwing beer down the drain will break your heart (as it would mine), you should avoid the risk. This is the perfect time to have a few mates around for an impromptu party...

...Now, what was your address?

Happy brewing,


Ian.