Accidentally racked into a dirty keg

aubrey · 01-19-2010, 12:56 AM

Cleaned (hot PBW soak + wipedown) a new keg last night, rinsed it well, visually inspected for cleanliness, sealed and stored. Pulled the same keg out tonight, sanitized, and racked my BM Centennial Blonde into it. As the beer got about 3/4 up the inside of the keg I happened to glance inside and can see some schmuck on the side of the keg inside, most likely some old coke. Wipe at it with my finger and it smears, so I quickly soak a paper towel in starsan and wipe what I can reach inside the keg quickly.

I really hope I didn't just ruin this batch of beer. At least it was a cheap one if I did.

No real point to this thread, just a pity party.

mordantly · 01-19-2010, 01:00 AM

well get a move on soldier! if it starts to turn, 14 days is a very doable timeline to kill it. i have adopted the leave a half gallon starsan under pressure, then blow it out the diptube and the line it's gonna dispense through.

Doc Robinson · 01-19-2010, 01:00 AM

You did exactly what I would do, and if it happened to me, I wouldn't really worry one bit. As the oxygen should be totally purged inside the keg, you aren't giving any wild bacteria much of an environment to propagate, especially at refrigerated temperatures. In addition, any flavor in the "schmuck" should be so minimal compared to 5 gallons that you in all likelihood would never notice.

aubrey · 01-19-2010, 01:23 AM

Yea I'm not terribly worried about it, there was just that soul-crushing moment where I looked in and went FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.......

I feel like it probably wasn't dirty any lower in the keg than that, and I just missed it because of shadows or whatever when I visually inspected.

On the plus side, the sample I grabbed to taste as I was racking it was delicious.