Help me diagnose what went wrong.

Good morning,

I kegged my first beer last weekend - a variation of the popular Centennial Blonde recipe posted in the recipes forum.

Our first pours tasted fantastic for two days. I mean, completely awesome. We could have crushed the keg if I didn't want to save some for more people to try.

Anyway, after about five days in the keg, it's tasting pretty bad. It now has a very unpleasant bitterness/astringent taste that was nonexistent upon first trying it.

Now, some theories:

1) I kegged it at my house and drove it to a friend's house to put in the kegerator. I did not purge the oxygen before transporting it. Is it possible that such a rapid oxidation could be a result of this poor handling practice?

2) We force carbonated it and drank about an hour after it settled. Is that too soon? Would the beer somehow separate without being given enough time to settle out?

Let me know your thoughts and thanks for your attention!

How are your sanitation practices on the keg? What did you use to clean and sanitize it prior to putting the beer in. It's not a great practice to fill a keg and then move it without topping off with CO2, but that typically wouldn't cause astringency/bitterness.

Also, if the off is appearing 5 days later, that doesn't say that you're experiencing a yeastiness issue. Sometimes transporting a keg will cause the yeast to shake up into suspension and can have a funny off - that's why NHC suggests racking into a clean keg prior to transport to make sure as little yeast as possible is in the keg.

My guess is you didn't have your cleaner completely rinsed or there was chlorinated water residue in the keg itself when you filled it up. 5 days is about right for a chlorophenolic (medicinal) taste to develop. It could also be that the keg was not sanitized properly and you are tasting the first stages of an infection.

Hey, thanks for your thoughts.

I sincerely doubt it was an infection. It was a new keg, which I rinsed profusely and then clean with Star San. It was almost dry when filled.

Medicinal is a good descriptor so something must have gone wrong. I will attempt to be more careful.

I think it's just the co2 carbonic acid. I think it's slightly overcarbed. Lower the serving pressure and purge the Excess co2 out. Check it in a couple weeks and it will be better.
I had this happen just recently to me. It was much more bitter astrigent, a couple weeks later it went away after lowering the co2 pressure.

Star san is a contact sanitizer, meaning it needs to be wet to be effective. Generally I put the star san in, add about a gallon of water and slosh liberally. I then drain just before filling. As the advertising goes, doen't fear the foam.

bigredbarn said:

Hey, thanks for your thoughts.

I sincerely doubt it was an infection. It was a new keg, which I rinsed profusely and then clean with Star San. It was almost dry when filled.

Medicinal is a good descriptor so something must have gone wrong. I will attempt to be more careful.

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What PSI and temperature do you have it at currently? Has it been at those levels since you originally carbed it? How long did you have it on the gas originally when carbing and at what PSI?

JRems said:

I think it's just the co2 carbonic acid. I think it's slightly overcarbed. Lower the serving pressure and purge the Excess co2 out. Check it in a couple weeks and it will be better.
I had this happen just recently to me. It was much more bitter astrigent, a couple weeks later it went away after lowering the co2 pressure.

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CPooley4 said:

What PSI and temperature do you have it at currently? Has it been at those levels since you originally carbed it? How long did you have it on the gas originally when carbing and at what PSI?

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This sounds like a great theory. I force carbed at about 16 PSI and backed it off to 11 at 41 degrees. I might still have higher volumes in the solution... ? It does not seem overcarbed though. It pours with a nice two finger head.

Your problem was in fact that you didn't drink it fast enough and that you didn't drive it over to my house. Lessons learned.

allthingsgiant said:

Your problem was in fact that you didn't drink it fast enough and that you didn't drive it over to my house. Lessons learned.

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I was trying to be nice and save some for my friends but apparently nice guys not only finish last - they finish last with ****ty beer!

bigredbarn said:

This sounds like a great theory. I force carbed at about 16 PSI and backed it off to 11 at 41 degrees. I might still have higher volumes in the solution... ? It does not seem overcarbed though. It pours with a nice two finger head.

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Unfortunately, I don't think that is your problem. 16 PSI at 41 degrees would have you at about a 2.75 CO2 level. Not nearly enough to give you any overcarbonation issues.

I force carb at 30 for 24 hours then drop to 8. Never had this issue. Odd.