these questions 2

[mr.jay]

One question, and one thought (in the form of a question):

1) Every minute or so, one of my beer ace 2 pumps lets out a spurt (as if the tap was open for a brief second). I closed the valve on my serving tank, and it still ran, unable to pull beer from the vessel. I checked the lines going out (less the 150 foot trunk) and behind each tap. Nothing. The pump was recently replaced, so I can't imagine that's the problem. What do I rule out next? I would hate the thought of having to replace the whole line.

2) I have entered my busy season. During this season, my pale ale sells like hotcakes. I am filling my 7Bbl TDV every three to four weeks. I thought today (as I kegged off the last 1/2 Bbl and cleaned the tank), why not just fill the tank back up every other time without cleaning it? I didn't do this , of course, because it...well....it felt wrong for some reason. BUT the tanks is sealed, under a blanket of CO2, and if I waited between batches to clean the tank, still less than 2 months old. I save money on chemicals (I would still pastuize my hoses and purge with CO2) and save time.

Still, I wont do it. I just want somebody to give me a good reason not to do it, so I wont be tempted to do it in the future when I am feeling like doing it.

[Matt Dog]

I would have no problem refilling a tank without cleaning if you are confident you had clean product in there and you are turning it fast enough. Any question on contamination and you need to clean it. Another option that saves time and money is to do a cool acid wash under pressure. This has been covered before so you could search for it. An old New Brewer had an article on it as well.

When you say your beer pump is spurting do you just mean its releasing air from the stone? If so I wouldnt sweat it as long as its working fine.