Infected stout. Can I keg it?

I have started a few sour beers over the last few months. I thought I was careful keeping everything used for sours separate but I must have slipped somewhere. I recently brewed a coffee stout. When I transferred it to secondary it seemed "normal" enough. I tossed some o
Sherry soaked oak chips in 4 days ago and now a thin pellicle is forming. I don't care to age this and would reader enjoy it now. Can I simply rack it to a keg? Well this stop the (presumably) Brett? Will I be able to use the keg for non funky brews again? Input is greatly appreciated. Thanks

How does it smell?

At the Leinie's plant they give the bottles a bath at 135 degrees F for 30 minutes and that pasteurizes them because of the heat and pressure combined. That method keeps the alcohol in.

How important is carbonation to you?

I'd bet some other people have experience with this.

...read the threads at the bottom of the page for more info. too.

To me personally, the cleaning infections thing sounds a tidge nerve-wracking.

I have something that keeps messing with my wheat beers.

I guess my question really is, do I need a dedicated keg and line for funky beers or can I clean the keg and line afterward and use for normal beers again? I realize the plastic is toast but since the keg/lines are refrigerated I am hoping I can get away with it.

Definitely keg it and drink it if it tastes good. Don't worry about it. The only problem I see with drinking a beer that's in the process of souring is if it has buttery diacetyl. Otherwise it's fine, healthy, etc... drink it! Through most of history, people have drunk beer that is in the process of going sour. There's no problem with it.

Also I need to say, IMO, don't bother with secondary unless you're intentionally racking a beer to a souring vessel, I think it's a waste of time for a clean beer unless your yeast his unhealthy. Even then, your secondary should be a keg .

Also, if you don't bottle often from the keg, don't worry about your lines. In fact, the sour beer will keep the lines sanitized with their acidity and maybe prevent mold.

To prevent souring of your clean beers in the kegs, just switch out the O-rings and rubber gaskets. Everything else will be clean enough with an oxyclean nuke.

if you clean and sanitize everything you shouldn't have a problem. we would all be in deep poop if these bugs could survive star san.

Thanks for the your answers. It was only a few days into the secondary so the Brett had barely taken hold. I can't taste it at all. I did keg it and the sample I had was really good. I understand your point regarding a secondary. This one had cocoa powder so thought a secondary would help clear it. In the end, I just lost a half a gallon of beer. Thanks again.

I have a followup question...
I recently bought a beer gun. Can I use this to bottle this out of the keg?
My concern is that any Brett that makes it to a bottle will slowly keep working and cause eventual over carbonation. ALso, I would hate to contaminate the gun and potentially cause over carbed "normal" beers. I am probably being paranoid regarding the second point but that gun was not cheap. Thanks for any suggestions.

Crayfish said:

I have a followup question...
I recently bought a beer gun. Can I use this to bottle this out of the keg?
My concern is that any Brett that makes it to a bottle will slowly keep working and cause eventual over carbonation. ALso, I would hate to contaminate the gun and potentially cause over carbed "normal" beers. I am probably being paranoid regarding the second point but that gun was not cheap. Thanks for any suggestions.

Click to expand...

they are bacteria and yeast not evil spirits, you can clean them off of a stainless steel beer gun.

I use my beer gun for both clean and sour and don't think I've had a problem. Then again I rarely brew clean ales since I can get 3 cases a month of clean beers at work.

I understand eastoak. I am just acutely paranoid after speaking to someone at my local homebrew store today. He advised to swap O rings on the keg and change tubing. He said to be extremely paranoid and this is the one instance when the RDWHAHB mantra does not apply.
Thanks for easing my paranoia a bit.

Crayfish said:

I understand eastoak. I am just acutely paranoid after speaking to someone at my local homebrew store today. He advised to swap O rings on the keg and change tubing. He said to be extremely paranoid and this is the one instance when the RDWHAHB mantra does not apply.
Thanks for easing my paranoia a bit.

Click to expand...

i heard the same thing about sour bugs, lots of people just repeat that because they hear others say it but i think on the homebrew scale there really should be no problem cleaning/sanitizing the small amount of gear we use. if i had a large brewery i would be much more paranoid since the surface areas involved are much greater and missing a spot is easier to do. after serving a keg of sour beer i clean, sanitize and rack a clean beer right into the keg, i never take the kegs apart to clean and have never had a problem. i'm not saying that cross contamination can't happen, it can, but it's not the emergency many people think it is to have sour bugs/yeast come in contact with rubber or plastic.