FAQ's - King Kegs (and general keg guidence)

[damon]

Please read these notes if you are using a king keg for the first time.

The most popular question we get asked is "My king keg has lost all it's pressure", and the second most popular question is about leaking taps. Please read this post because it will help prevent any potential problems you may experience.

Using the king keg is very easy, but you’ll get more from it if you understand how it works. There is a lot of information here, but don’t let that put you off. These are great barrels (I personally use 3 of them) they are very easy to use and will last for years if you look after them.

The manufacture has a return rate of 0.0000001% making these barrels one of the most reliable homebrew products available. But it is very important you read the instruction leaflets supplied inside your barrel before use as you may invalidate your guarantee if you don't follow the instructions correctly. If they are missing, contact us ASAP and we can email them to you.

Preparing the barrel
The barrel is NOT supplied "ready to use" and it's your responsibility to ensure it has been assembled OK and the seals are in place before filling it with beer. You will need to dismantle and clean it after each use (this includes the tap).

Prior to the first use, ensure that the valve is tighly sealed against the lid and the rubber washers are in place and doing their job.

Before adding beer, the barrel must be sterilized. You should only use a homebrew sterilizer such as VWP for this purpose. Using anything will cause damage to the valve and invalidate the guarantee.

Fill the barrel completely with water to check for leaks. The barrels are injection molded so the possibility of a problem is minimal, but it's better to check with water than to discover a problem once it's full of beer.

Lubricating The Lid & Thread
Before fitting the lid, you need to lubricate the thread and "0" ring with plenty of vaseline (or another petroleum jelly) - DO NOT use WD40, vegetable oil, olive oil, 3 in 1, chain lube, engine oil, chip fat (you may laugh...) or any other type of lubricant as this will affect the flavour of your beer, may react with the plastic or just not work.

If the lid thread is not lubricated it will bind and will not seat correctly on the barrel. CO2 will escape through the small gap between the lid and the barrel.





The Tap
The tap is usually supplied with the tap fitted to the barrel, but it's not ready for use. It needs to be checked and cleaned.

You need to remove and clean the tap. You may need to dismantle it to ensure its clean, working OK and seals correctly. You will need to do this each time the barrel is used to ensure it’s kept clean.

To disassemble the tap, lift off the cap (see picture) and turn the tap anti-clockwise. The tap then comes away from the body.



Once it's been cleaned, check to ensure there is nothing inside the tap body that my get trapped between the seal and the body and cause a leak. Then, simply insert the tap into the body and turn clockwise and refit the cap.

It's very important the cap is fitted correctly, if not it will leak as pressure builds up. The cap has a protuding lug that stops the tap from being turned too far (open or closed) As the tap is turned it "stops" against a bar moulded as part of the tap body.

Before putting the tap back onto the barrel, make sure it seals correctly. The seal is very simple (no washers etc.). If there is anything inside the tap, it will leak. You can check the seal is OK by looking into both the outlet and inlet part of the tap body.



Building and Maintaining Pressure
IMPORTANT: Check that the “O” is fitted correctly into the groove on the inside of the lid. lubricate the “O” ring and the thread of the cap with vaseline – without doing this the cap WILL NOT SEAL and no pressure will build up as the CO2 produced by the beer will escape. Adding CO via the value will also just leak out.



DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN THE LID - The 'O' seals itself onto the rim of the barrel - the more pressure there is, the better the seal. If you over tighten the lid, the "O" ring is deformed creating small gaps in the seal. You just need to turn the lid clockwise until it's "very" hand tight - we feel this is best described as hnd tight + 1/4 turn. The soft plastic of the lid will split or cross thread if you continue to tighten the lid beyond its designed threshhold invalidating the guarantee.



The Valve
Check the valve seals – The value is very simple but well constructed. It’s almost impossible for the seal to leak if it’s maintained correctly. It works by covering two holes with rubber bands. One hole for gas in another for gas out. As the pressure builds the appropriate band is “lifted” by the gas and some either escapes or is let in. As the pressure drops, the band reseals the hole. For this to work correctly the rubber bands must be flat with no folds and wrinkles in them.

If you use the CO2 sparklets to add pressure the "IN" band may freeze (When CO2 is de-pressurised it's very cold). You need to allow the band to thaw and reseal before removing the CO2 sparklet bulb. this usually happens with a few seconds, but there is no harm in leaving the bulb in place until you need to add another or the beer has gone.





There is a small “O” ring on the inlet part of the valve (just inside the top entry point). If this is not seated correctly, any gas going in, will leak straight out.

The Float System (Top Tap's Only)
You need to assemble the float and fit it to the "inlet" part of the tap body – This is very simple and instructions on how to do this are included with the barrel.



Adding extra CO2
Our King Keg top tap barrels are slightly different from the standard keg sold elsewhere. Due to the difficulty and poor availability of soda stream and S30 CO2 bottles in the UK, we now supply king keg top taps with the pin style valve so the small 8gm gas bulbs can be used. The keg comes complete with the injection tool.



To inject CO2, place a bulb into the injection tool and screw it onto the value. As you screw down the pin punctures the bulb and injects the CO2 into the barrel.

Leave the gas bulb in place. If you remove it to soon, the CO2 will leak back out through the valve.



The bottom tap barrels are still fitted with the S30 value. You can either use an adaptor and soda stream bottle or simply undo the lid very slightly to equalize the pressure and allow the beer to flow out of the barrel.

After Use
Clean the barrel as soon as you've drunk the beer with VWP and dry it for storage.

When you next use it, sterlise again and rinse it out and check all the valves, tap, seals etc. before refilling with beer.
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Why pay Gordon when you can "Brew It Yourself"