Always trub in my glass!!

Hey guys,
I have some what of an annoying predicament! Everytime I go get the first fresh beer from my kegerator it always spits out trub or junk from the bottom of the keg! How do I prevent this build-up of crud? I always cold crash my beers for 3 days before kegging and would assume if even a little bit of trub did get into my keg that it would disappear in the first pint of the keg. Not every time I go to get my first beer of the day.

Regards,
Chris

Chris7687 said:

Hey guys,
I have some what of an annoying predicament! Everytime I go get the first fresh beer from my kegerator it always spits out trub or junk from the bottom of the keg! How do I prevent this build-up of crud? I always cold crash my beers for 3 days before kegging and would assume if even a little bit of trub did get into my keg that it would disappear in the first pint of the keg. Not every time I go to get my first beer of the day.

Regards,
Chris

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A couple options... combine for effect...
More flocculant yeast.
Longer cold crash.
Move carboy to gravity feed position a day before you rack.
More careful racking.
Trim 1/4" off your keg diptube.
Use finings in a short secondary.
Use a filter between two kegs.

Bobby_M said:

A couple options... combine for effect...
More flocculant yeast.
Longer cold crash.
Move carboy to gravity feed position a day before you rack.
More careful racking.
Trim 1/4" off your keg diptube.
Use finings in a short secondary.
Use a filter between two kegs.
Don't forget to tip your brew faries.

Click to expand...

I found that last one most helpful

Sounds like an infection of some sort to me.
If it happens on the first beer of the day but not on subsequent beers then it sounds like something is growing in the beer, and given enough time, it makes a noticeable difference to the quality of the beer.
FWIW, I'm having the same problem. It happens in all of my kegs, although I have stripped them down, thoroughly cleaned and sanitized them, and replaced all the O rings. No difference.
I replaced the beer line, and connector. Again no difference. The next beer I keg, I will replace the CO2 cartridge, line, and connector.
If that doesn't work, then I will just start taking a pint every hour throughout the day and night so whatever it is doesn't have time to grow.

-a.

Any chance the crud is coming from you faucet rather than the keg? Maybe you've got something growing in there.

I've shortened all the dip tubes in my kegs since I almost always keg condition. I've also added dip tube filters to the ends of all in my kegs.

In my case, I replaced the faucet with the line and the connector.

-a.

Another thought- are you moving the keg around, or bumping it? That resuspends the sediment, and it comes out on the first pour after sitting again.

It makes perfect sense that a portion of suspended solids settle near the diptube and gets sucked up on the first pour of the day. Wait another day and some more settles and you get the trub pour again.

I will try stripping and cleaning everything tomorrow. Is there a good video or written tutorial on stripping and cleaning a keg? I've only ever ran StarSan through my kegs, although always clean with PBW after each batch (never run through lines). Luckily, the 3 cornies I have are empty right now,c old crashing 3 beers right now. I just don't see how that much trub can keep falling over the life of a keg! It's seriously the first pint of the day, whenever I go for a pour. It isn't just the first 2 or 3 days, it's up to two weeks later that it still produces this "trub"

Trim a 1/4 inch off your dip tube

Bobby_M said:

It makes perfect sense that a portion of suspended solids settle near the diptube and gets sucked up on the first pour of the day. Wait another day and some more settles and you get the trub pour again.

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But given enough time all the solids should have dropped out (or at least all of them that a going too). I prime my kegs and have not cut my dip tubes short, and I'm impatient once the keg goes in the keezer. WHat I see is:
First few days I manage to leave it alone to get cold/co2 to disolve into beer,
after about 4 day I start drinking and it is cloady (more so in first pull of the day)
After about 7-10 days all the solids have dropped and no more cloadyness, crystal clear beer comes out each and every time.

I am pretty much using US05 for nearly every brew so that might help things

I am in the same boat mattd2. I never move my kegs around once I put them into the kegerator. Let sit for about a 7 to 10 days to properly carb up, then pour the first pint or two out of all the trub. I have crystal clear beer then, but every day I come to get a new pint the first one is always cloudy and nasty. Also use US-05 for most of my beers, single packet and no starter (which soon will change).

Chris7687 said:

I am in the same boat mattd2. I never move my kegs around once I put them into the kegerator. Let sit for about a 7 to 10 days to properly carb up, then pour the first pint or two out of all the trub. I have crystal clear beer then, but every day I come to get a new pint the first one is always cloudy and nasty. Also use US-05 for most of my beers, single packet and no starter (which soon will change).

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I found that S05 seems to take forever to clear for me. Maybe try a more flocculant yeast strain. I don't use S04 all that much, but when I do it forms such a tight compact yeast cake that it's like cement in the bottom of my keg and the beer is super clear.

One thing I'd recommend is always take the keg apart to clean. It takes literally 5 minutes. You just remove the posts, pull out the diptubes, clean, and put back. (The poppits pop out). Just always keep the parts separate- the gas on the left, and the beer on the right, as they are not interchangeable!

I did two kegs yesterday- used a deep socket to take off the posts, and then cleaned them and sanitized and filled. One thing that will encourage you to always do this- take the long diptube and hold it up to the light and eyeball it. If you've never done this, I guarantee it'll have crud in it. I have a long diptube brush ($5ish) and I just run it through and rinse and then eyeball again. Since the first time I did this, and saw what was in the poppit and the long diptube, I always do it now. Trust me. Running cleaner and sanitizer through it does help, but at least every couple of times take it apart! I make a lot of hoppy beers, and I always have some hop debris and yeast crud around the poppit from them.

I have a 72 hour process that I follow when preparing my keg beer and have been getting pretty good results.

1) 0-24 hours -- cooling keg from room temp to serving temp
2) 24-72 hours -- add gelatin and begin force carbing at 30 psi (unless I naturally carb then I just add gelatin
3) 72+ hours. Generally, at 48 hours after adding gelatin and force carbing at 30 psi I will bleed off the extra pressure and pull my first pint. Typically, the first pint is full of crud, but after that I have clear drinkable carbonated beer.

I've noticed that when I don't use gelatin I get crud in my beer much past the first pint. I suspect that the gelatin forces everything to drop and coagulate at the bottom of the keg, so when I pull that first pint, its sucks all that sediment out right off the bat, instead of taking a week or two.

Thanks Yooper. I will definitely take apart some kegs tonight, hope I don't loose any pieces!

RmikeVT - I've heard of people using gelatin in the carboys, but not kegs... How does this work? Is it just plain jello? Sorry if this is a newb question...

Sometimes I feel like kegging is way more time consuming then bottling. Hate cleaning kegs.

There isn't enough room to store all the bottles at a cool temp! Kegs, although big, are more compact!

iijakii said:

Sometimes I feel like kegging is way more time consuming then bottling. Hate cleaning kegs.

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You're doing it wrong. I kegged a ten gallon batch and cleaned everything up in less than an hour last weekend. How long would that take using bottles? Might as well be a million years.

Rinse a bottle out right when you use it, put a tiny oxiclean crystal in it, rinse again, flip it upside down, sheeeeeeeeit.

I mean, I keg still, but I don't really find bottling harder? Storing definitely is a valid concern.

Chris7687 said:

Thanks Yooper. I will definitely take apart some kegs tonight, hope I don't loose any pieces!

RmikeVT - I've heard of people using gelatin in the carboys, but not kegs... How does this work? Is it just plain jello? Sorry if this is a newb question...

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For a five gallon batch I heat 8oz water up to about 180* and then add a 1 tsp of gelatin and mix until dissolved. Let it sit for about 15 minutes to make sure the gelatin is completely in solution and then open the keg up, pour into the cooled beer and close up the keg and put the pressure on. After about 2 days under 30 psi the keg is carbed and the gelatin has dropped most of the sediment to the bottom of the keg and when I take the first pull it sucks it all up. I will have about another day or two of beer with a little cloudiness but it is not offensive at all - it is just protein haze, no crud floating around. Once I get about 4 days out from adding the gelatin I have completely crystal clear beer. My theory is that the Gelatin drops what it can out of suspension and creates a dense sludge and aside from the intial pull of trub, the rest stays stuck to the bottom of the keg. I don't know if that makes sense but it works for me, especially since I don't have room to cold crash besides when I am carbing up the keg.

Nice.

Side note predicament - How fast can you force carb? I thought I've been cold crashing my carboys the past 3 days, so I could keg before I leave on a trip but turns out I turned my fridge to "Cold" and not "Colder"!!! Sh*T!!! I am having a Pumpkin Bash Party on Friday 10/19) next week and I am "releasing" my pumpkin beer. I get back Sunday night. Is it possible to gas up by Friday? set to 30 psi and leave for 2 days I heard works... open to suggestions!!

Chris7687 said:

Nice.

Side note predicament - How fast can you force carb? I thought I've been cold crashing my carboys the past 3 days, so I could keg before I leave on a trip but turns out I turned my fridge to "Cold" and not "Colder"!!! Sh*T!!! I am having a Pumpkin Bash Party on Friday 10/19) next week and I am "releasing" my pumpkin beer. I get back Sunday night. Is it possible to gas up by Friday? set to 30 psi and leave for 2 days I heard works... open to suggestions!!

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There are methods you can find that you can carb up in a half hour. Personally, I set to 30psi for 24-48 hours depending on my desired carbonation level and amount of beer going into the keg. If its a full corny and an american style 48 hours @ 30 psi. I will bleed the pressure off at 24 or 36 hours and try a pint to evaluate carbonation.

Thanks Mike. Just to clarify you set to 30psi and leave connected, correct? I left it on 30psi overnight and disconnected this morning. Will reconnect tonight and test the carbonation.

Leave hooked up to 30psi. Keep in mind that the dip tube and beer line going to the tap won't carbonate at the same level as the rest of the beer.