Cure for beer flavored sparkling water

I keep a keg of sparkling water for the girlfriend, but after seemingly exhaustive efforts to thoroughly clean the entire system, the water still has a slight beer taste.

So far, I've thoroughly cleaned the keg including disassembling and cleaning the posts and poppets, have brand new beverage and gas lines, disassembled and cleaned the quick disconnects, disassembled and cleaned the shank and faucet, soaked all the parts for over a day in B-brite and replaced all seals/o-rings with new ones. Is there anything I missed? I thought perhaps beer flavors were being transfered among the kegs via the gas lines, but the ball valve connected to each keg has a check valve so the flow of gas is only one way.

If this doesn't work out, I'll go back to making the sparkling water in 2ltr soda bottles with the carbonator cap. Only, she would prefer it in a non-plastic bottle. As of yet, I haven't been able to find a glass bottle with "soda threads." Does anyone know of such a thing? Thanks!

Did you replace all the rubber in your shank and faucet? I had a root beer taste in mine and had to replace the rubber up top in addition to the rubber on the keg. I used oxyclean for my soak and it seemed to clean the stainless really well. All the seals were a PITA though! I will never run root beer through my system again!

If that doesn't work, you may need to get a setup for your sparkling water.

+1 to seasummit3. Replace all o-rings involved in that line from keg to dispensing.

Thanks guys, but I already replaced all the o-rings.

... and replaced all seals/o-rings with new ones

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Also, I would suppose there is beer flavor contamination from beer to beer too, but it is undetectable.

Did you replace the hoses as well?

iceman80403 said:

Thanks guys, but I already replaced all the o-rings.

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Yep, I read that part, but wanted to mention it again as there are specialty order seals such as the faucet seat on the plunger shaft (assuming you're using standard faucets). If everything non-stainless steal has been replaced in your system, I would try another cleaner (OxyClean, PBW, etc) and scrub till your arm falls off. It seems strange that stainless steel would hold a flavor. If it doesn't work in the end, get a new setup and dedicate it. Good luck!

Yes, I've replaced all four ring/gasket parts in the tap. The tubes are brand new as stated. I've completely disassembled and thoroughly cleaned all parts so there is nothing but metal and gasket. The tap and shank are all old chrome plated brass with lots of brass exposed. I have treated them to remove surface lead though. Could the beer flavor be in or caused by the exposed brass? This is really weird and troubling! Thanks for your help!

Take a sample from the keg via the hatch and a wine theif.

By the way, I thought beer flavored sparking water was the cure for Tuesday afternoons at work.

Did you replace the liquid out connector?

Have you thought about finding a girlfriend that likes beer? Seriously, if the two of them like each other it could really work out....

caustic or acid wash everything including lines and connections