Dumped my first batch...

Bell's Two hearted clone. Tasted amazing when I kegged it.

Tasted effing awful when I tried to drink it. Really, really undrinkable.

Let it sit for a month with no improvement and then needed the keg. So I dumped it, took apart the keg and cleaned and sanitized EVERYTHING twice.

Very frustrating because when I kegged this beer I thought it was my best to date.

Any ideas? Beer became very cloudy (wasn't when I kegged it), had a funny odor, and a terrible taste. Almost medicinal, but not exactly like Palmer describes.

BTW- drinking some Edwort's Apfelwein. Jesus this stuff is good. Probably a bad idea to have kegged it. Not sure how much I have had, but it's smoooooooooth.

my first thought was you disturbed the yeast pit.
But if you left it a month in the keg it should of settled INLESS you moved it again?

But if you've sanitized everything TWICE i'm stuck on what it could be!

Arhh, Got my own version of Apfelwein on the go now

You should check the CO2. Some guys on here have had problems where their CO2 caused some off tastes because it was industrial and not for carbonation purposes. The yeast cake wouldnt cause that kind of taste, at least that I know of. I've never tasted yeast that were awful. Sometimes weird but never undrinkable.

Upon thinking about it I have an idea. Put some water into your kegs and carbonate it. Make seltzer. Taste it. Taste okay? Then you need to look at your process. Taste bad? Bingo there's your problem.

statseeker said:

You should check the CO2. Some guys on here have had problems where their CO2 caused some off tastes because it was industrial and not for carbonation purposes. The yeast cake wouldnt cause that kind of taste, at least that I know of. I've never tasted yeast that were awful. Sometimes weird but never undrinkable.

Click to expand...

Do you have a link or anything for this? I get my CO2 from a fire extinguisher company. I didn't know there was a difference?

Just dealt with this myself and impulsively, I sold my kegerator. My two most recent batches were the first ones to get kegged. I was very excited about the savings in time and just the joy of pouring my own draft beer. My first batch in the keg tasted awful. I don't recall it tasting that way when I was kegging it, but it had a medicinal/metallic aftertaste that I just couldn't shake. I thought leaving it for a few more weeks would help it condition. The aftertaste may have reduced a little, but it was still there. No problem. This batch was fermenting in the summer and it may have gotten too warm. For my next batch I decided to put my better bottle in a swamp cooler to control the high summer temps. This worked pretty well, and I was able to keep my temps in the 60's. I was excited about kegging this one. Two weeks of carbing and I had a glass. Same taste as the first batch? Now I was really pissed. I wasted two batches and couldn't figure out what was wrong. All of my previous batches that were bottled tasted great. I narrowed it down to either the kegs or the Co2 tank. I got the kegs used from a soda distributor. I made sure to clean them with oxiclean free and sanitize them with Starsan. The only thing I couldn't do was remove the in and out posts since I didn't have a socket wrench that fit. Not sure if that was my problem right there, or if the Co2 tank I got off Craigslist was introducing weird flavors to the beer. Instead of diagnosing the problem and spending more money and time, I sold my kegerator and got at least what I paid for it. The way I see it, I can still enjoy homebrew with or without a kegerator. I'll let you know if I regret this decision lol. Good luck on finding your problem.

Also, as someone just posted, try cleaning out the keg and put some water in it. Make sure you also run some Star San through your lines to get rid of any residue. Connect your Co2 tank to the keg and leave it in there overnight. It should taste normal. If you notice that same flavor present in the water, you can narrow it down to the kegs, Co2 tank, or beer lines.

I get my CO2 from a welding supply company. I do not notice any off flavors in my beer. You cleaned the keg...but how about the beer supply lines? How about the tap itself? How about the CO2, how old is it?

I only have one tap, so after each batch, I clean out my beer lines and tap to remove any former taste from the previous beer. I actually purchased the tap used from someone, and when I cleaned it out, black chunks of stuff came out of it...so if you haven't ever cleaned it, you might want to.

Still, if you want to rule out gas, like the other poster said, after you clean the lines and tap, take a clean keg and fill it with a little water. Pressurize it and then taste the water.

I'm about 85% sure it's not the kegs/taps/lines, if his cleaning/sanitation process is as good as he claims. But as hagelini said, check your taps and make sure everything is nice and clean. If so, that narrows it down even further to the CO2 line. I dont think it matters too much what "grade" of CO2 you get as much as it does the condition of the bottle and the last year certification was and that kind of thing. If there's any oxidation or rusting of the bottle or anything of that nature, it will affect the quality of the gas. I check 3 things when I get a CO2 bottle from a welding supply store.

1. Condition of the bottle. Is it clean? Is it steel or aluminum? Does it have any rust on the bottle itself?

2. Condition of the fittings. Are they clean? Is there any breaking down or oxidation?

3. Certification date. These should be certified every 5 years. If someone tries to pawn you off a tank that hasnt been certified in ages, dont expect to be able to exchange it without a recertification fee.

Here's a good resource:

http://bvrgelements.com/cyl_products.html

Airgas has a bunch of different grades on their website. I would try and get as close to food grade gas as possible. But welding grade gas works too, I havent had any issues with off flavors.

http://airgas.com/browse/product_list.aspx?catID=191&WT.svl=191

Just protect yourself as much as possible. If you dont and it ends up biting you, you not only spent for the CO2 but for the beer ingredients too if you end up dumping it.

It's not the CO2 as I have two other kegs carbed from the same bottle...

I am thinking I probably missed a spot when I cleaned the keg or something.

All I know is it was funky.