keg gasket replacement/refurbishing
after a successful weekend pouring the marzen as a “movemberfest” at ML’s movember fundraiser party, I was motivated to keg the small beer from my last brew session, which I had dry hopped with a couple ounces of willamette for about a week. since my only remaining kegs were uncleaned and not rebuilt, a gasket replacement and general cleaning was in order.
- simply put, buying “reconditioned” kegs with the gaskets replaced is a rip-off. morebeer sells refurbished kegs for $17 more than their unrefurbished counterparts. also, stores like northern brewer don’t even carry refurbished kegs, and their new ones run over three times the price of used. rebuilding a standard cornelius keg only takes a couple bucks and a few minutes of your time:
after giving your keg a general external washing (I blast mine with a garden hose jet setting) and quick scrub to remove dirt, syrup, and any other external debris, grab a socket wrench and unscrew the beer OUT post on the keg. you will need either a 7/8″ or 11/16″ ‘deep’ socket, depending on what style posts you have. I recommend picking up both sockets at a place like harbor freight, especially if you keg with any frequency.
once you remove the post (you might have to wrestle with it a little after unscrewing), pull the dip tube out of the keg and and roll the o-ring at the top of the tube down and off of the tube. sometimes the o-ring is fused onto the top of the dip tube from years of abuse, in which case a razor blade or thumbnail may come in handy to pry 0-ring loose. if you see any mineral deposits or other gunk on the dip tube, scrub them off.
take your replacement o-ring and slide it back up the tube, then replace the dip tube. note that the gasket replacement kit contains five items – two dip tube o-rings, two post o-rings, and one lid gasket. major retailers sell these for $3-4 online, but I have found some for as little as $1.50 a set.
do the same with the gas IN post of the keg. a few things to note here – (1)the gas in dip tube is much smaller than the beer out post, and may be either metal or plastic; (2) the gas in dip tube can be a pain in the ass to pull out of the gas in post. be sure to clean the dip tube thoroughly, as these things are usually filthy – a q-tip soaked in PBW works well. while replacing the o-rings on the dip tubes, I also like to punch the poppets out of both posts (using a pen tip or chopstick) and soak the poppets, posts, gas in dip tube, and lid pressure relief valve (the valve that screws into the lid of the keg) in a hot PBW solution for a few minutes and rinse with hot water. a word of warning, however – the gas IN and beer OUT posts are NOT interchangeable, so make note of which is which (one usually has a different shape or is notched).
after the posts, poppets, and dip tubes are clean, reassemble and hand tighten the posts. next, remove and replace the post o-rings. a razor blade or knife makes this job a lot easier. then replace the lid gasket and you’re all set!
after replacing the gaskets, I like to shake up a good amount of PBW and hot water in the keg.
while the hot PBW sits in the keg, I then clean the beer out dip tube by running hot PBW through the beer out post via my homemade line cleaner. I then rinse the keg a couple of times with hot water and shake up some star-san in the keg, which I also run through my beer out line.
after dumping out the sanitizer, the keg is ready to fill with your beverage of choice. my small beer finished at 1.004 for an ABV of 4.22%, and a sample tasted promising, as the earthy hops blended nicely with the toned-down roast profile. I primed the keg with 4.7oz. of wildflower honey and will give it about a month to carb up.- despite the rising cost of stainless steel, by buying inexpensive gasket kits and keeping an eye out for the occasional bargain, I can pick up kegs for $20-25, which is about half of what they go for in “refurbished” condition. good luck!
Tags: keg refurbishing, marzen, movemberfest, o-rings, small beer
