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Author Topic: Infection in keg  (Read 2116 times)

Offline Andor

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Infection in keg
« on: September 11, 2017, 12:36:26 pm »
My recent keg of Vienna lager has developed an off flavor I think may be due to infection. When I first started serving the keg I was getting a lot of foam. I tried ever thing and eventually dissembled the tap and found mold and gross gunk. That stopped the foaming but the beer now has a caramel/tang.

 Is it possible for a keg to get infected from the tap? I didn't think the beer would run back into the keg but that's the only thing I can think of. I haven't had any infected batches in years

Looking back the last batch I served from the tap also had a strange caramel flavor. At the time I thought it was just a bad recipe and me not likening golden naked oats.

I circulate Blc through my lines and taps but clearly especially for that tap I need to disassemble. The perlick ss were all in good shape when I disassembled them.


Offline santoch

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Re: Infection in keg
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2017, 08:55:55 pm »
Yes, disassemble everything.

Throw away the rubber parts of your kegs and replace them (usually about 6 bucks for O-ring sets, and similar amount for replacement poppets.

If  you have a plastic picnic tap, get rid of it too.

Then, clean everyghing thoroughly (Oxyclean or PBW) and then sanitize thoroughly with at least 2 different sanitizers like Iodophor AND Star-San.  Using more than 1 sanitizer will kill everything.

HTH-

Looking for a club near my new house
BJCP GM3/Mead Judge

Offline Andor

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Re: Infection in keg
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2017, 06:50:47 pm »
Can anyone confirm that beer can flow back into the keg from tap/ lines? I'm still getting an off flavor after cleaning lines and tap. The beer was super clean going into keg. It's frustrating me to no end

Offline Stevie

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Re: Infection in keg
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2017, 07:25:21 pm »
Sure. There is no one way valve preventing it. It's not so much flow as much as intermingling

Offline Andor

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Re: Infection in keg
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2017, 08:08:45 pm »
Sure. There is no one way valve preventing it. It's not so much flow as much as intermingling

True thanks that makes sense. In the beginning when it was all foam out of the tap I thought it got overcarbed some how so I removed from kegerator for 24 hr and then off gassed. The foam turned out to be nucleation due to a disgusting tap but the 24 hours of warm temps was probably the demise of batch 71.  Lesson learned.