Laurel
Well-Known Member
So for my maiden voyage into kegging, I kegged up an APA, and HWMBO got one of our cornies filled at the local brewpub with his favorite Scotch ale.
I asked them if the keg needed to be sanitized, and they said no, they'll take care of it because "we have special commercial sanitizer that home users don't have." Whatever that means. I was going to run starsan through it before bringing it to them, but after disassembling, scrubbing, soaking, removing all o-rings, lubing, and reassembling 6 kegs, I was perfectly happy to let them do it.
So we got it filled, hooked up the gas to a corny with starsan in it, and ran a couple gallons through, and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then hooked up the keg, after misting the poppets with starsan. 2.5 weeks later, the Scotch is starting to taste a little off. HWMBO brings a glass over to me and says "I think the Scotch tastes a little funny." I had just eaten a coconut popsicle, and when I tasted it, it was a little sour and I figured it might be a lacto infection, but then my palette wasn't exactly clean and I forgot about it.
A few days later (saturday) I taste the Scotch again, and it definitely has an off flavor. It's almost like someone mixed some wine in there, it's tart, bordering on vinegary. I've never tasted lacto, but I assume that this is what it is. I'm going to call the brewpub and ask them if they want to try it, and get them to replace the keg (they're closed sunday and monday).
I have 9 feet of beer line that I just bought and was going to hook up before all this hoopla occurred to fix the foaming issue that we've been having, so replacing the line shouldn't be an issue.
I'm worried that the lacto infection somehow made it's way up through the CO2 lines and into the regulator(which does have dual check valves, but still!) Should I be this paranoid? Do I need to bleach the QD on the gas side and replace the gas line? What do I do with the regulator?
I might be overreacting, but I'm a sanitation nazi and have yet to have an infected batch in nearly 9 months and I'm not ready to start battling lacto infections in my brews.
Any other suggestions? I want to make sure this is dead
I asked them if the keg needed to be sanitized, and they said no, they'll take care of it because "we have special commercial sanitizer that home users don't have." Whatever that means. I was going to run starsan through it before bringing it to them, but after disassembling, scrubbing, soaking, removing all o-rings, lubing, and reassembling 6 kegs, I was perfectly happy to let them do it.
So we got it filled, hooked up the gas to a corny with starsan in it, and ran a couple gallons through, and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then hooked up the keg, after misting the poppets with starsan. 2.5 weeks later, the Scotch is starting to taste a little off. HWMBO brings a glass over to me and says "I think the Scotch tastes a little funny." I had just eaten a coconut popsicle, and when I tasted it, it was a little sour and I figured it might be a lacto infection, but then my palette wasn't exactly clean and I forgot about it.
A few days later (saturday) I taste the Scotch again, and it definitely has an off flavor. It's almost like someone mixed some wine in there, it's tart, bordering on vinegary. I've never tasted lacto, but I assume that this is what it is. I'm going to call the brewpub and ask them if they want to try it, and get them to replace the keg (they're closed sunday and monday).
I have 9 feet of beer line that I just bought and was going to hook up before all this hoopla occurred to fix the foaming issue that we've been having, so replacing the line shouldn't be an issue.
I'm worried that the lacto infection somehow made it's way up through the CO2 lines and into the regulator(which does have dual check valves, but still!) Should I be this paranoid? Do I need to bleach the QD on the gas side and replace the gas line? What do I do with the regulator?
I might be overreacting, but I'm a sanitation nazi and have yet to have an infected batch in nearly 9 months and I'm not ready to start battling lacto infections in my brews.
Any other suggestions? I want to make sure this is dead