Metallic Taste in Keg / No Metallic Taste in Bottles...

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TX-Jeff

TX-Jeff

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So this would be the second time that this particular keg has produced a beer with a slight metallic taste. I have 2 kegs and it only seems to be this one that has ever done this and it seems to be only recently starting to happen. Last time this happened I did not bottle any of the batch so I had nothing to compare it to, I just chalked it up to the fact that it was a funky batch and hammered through it. When finished with the funky batch I did a super clean up of the keg. On the next batch, I bottled 12 before I moved the batch to the keg. The keg was force carbed at ~10-12 psi for a week and it didn't have any metallic taste after a week. I left the pressure about the same and week 3 the beer tasted even better. Now we are into week 6 and the beer has an obvious metallic flaw. I went ahead and opened up a bottle and sure enough, no metallic taste. If anyone knows what might be going on with my keg let me know. :mug:
Cheers, Thanks!
 
TX-Jeff said:
So this would be the second time that this particular keg has produced a beer with a slight metallic taste. I have 2 kegs and it only seems to be this one that has ever done this and it seems to be only recently starting to happen. Last time this happened I did not bottle any of the batch so I had nothing to compare it to, I just chalked it up to the fact that it was a funky batch and hammered through it. When finished with the funky batch I did a super clean up of the keg. On the next batch, I bottled 12 before I moved the batch to the keg. The keg was force carbed at ~10-12 psi for a week and it didn't have any metallic taste after a week. I left the pressure about the same and week 3 the beer tasted even better. Now we are into week 6 and the beer has an obvious metallic flaw. I went ahead and opened up a bottle and sure enough, no metallic taste. If anyone knows what might be going on with my keg let me know. :mug:
Cheers, Thanks!
Click to expand...

It could be that some of the metal in the keg has had some sort of chemical reaction from what ever cleaner you are using...however I would start with your beer lines, if you are using a cleaner that contains caustic acid it will leave a slight metallic flavor in your beer, a lot of oxygen based cleaners have this stuff in them.
 
My first thought is that maybe there is rust in your keg somewhere. If it's only happening with the one keg, then I wouldn't think it would be cleaner related. I'd fully disassemble the keg and check for rust the best you can. If you don't see anything, maybe the top of the keg on the inside is rusted? Wet a paper towel and rub it and see if anything comes off. If you do find rust, scrub with BKF to clean it up. Just a thought.
 
I will have to check for rust, never thought about that. The beer that taste metallic is a Munich Lager so the flaw is very obvious, my other beer is an ESB so perhaps the metallic taste in that one is being covered up. I have probably kegged 10 batches in these kegs and only recently started to get a metallic taste. I have been using Penetrate Beverage System Cleaner to clean out my kegs but am thinking about switching to something else just incase the cleaner is the problem. Perhaps the cleaner is causing some kind of buildup in the keg. Next time I am going to take the keg apart and clean it piece by piece. Any suggestions on a new cleaning solution? So many options out there….
 
This is an old thread- but I had the same problem pop up recently.

The CO2 was low.

When I got it refilled, the problem went away.

I have no idea why this was the case, but getting a full tank fixed the problem.
 
Ok, so I decided to do a deep clean, removed all hardware, changed my cleaning solution, and finished with a HOT water rinse. So far there is no metallic taste in the beer. I say so far because it has only been in the keg for 3 weeks. This is about the time things start getting a bit funky tasting. I hope this takes care of the issue, if not I think I may try and check the CO2, its not reading low but if you had the problem and it fixed it, I am willing to try anything at this point.
 
After switching out the cleaners and breaking the keg down for a thorough cleaning I have not had a problem. I now believe that the cleaner I was originally using was leaving some kind of residue or film on the inside of the keg. I have now switched to PBW and have had no issues whatsoever. Thanks to all those who posted.:mug:
 

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