I received my notes back from the The Kabouter Kup, and both the judges and I believe my beer was infected. One note was "salty" and another was "Sour." It was a Pale ale, btw. Straight out of the tap it tastes great. Maybe one of my favorite beers I've ever brewed. So I'm thinking IF (and a big if,) the keg is infected, keeping it in the kegerator at 38* is keeping the bug in check. As soon as I bottled the beer and sent it to the contest, the beer warmed up and so did the bug.
I can't decide if it is the keg or my bottling method. I did sanitize the bottles (with a vintator,) and starsan before I filled them. I also rinsed the disconnect, hose, picnic tap and BMBF with starsan. The starsan was not cloudy, and was only a month old (I use DI water so a batch should last forever.) I can't currently taste anything wrong with the beer, so I'm thinking I might have a house bug, something that's resistant to starsan.
I haven't been tearing apart my kegs every refill. More like every other or maybe every three. So I am totally refurbing the kegs when they're empty from now on. This current time I'm replacing all the O-rings along with the tear down.
Instead of using starsan to sanitize this batch, I'm using 1oz vinegar and 1oz bleach per 5 gallons, as a no rinse per this section of the wiki
I just finished dumping out the keg, and it still smells strongly of chlorine. Is this normal or should I rinse the keg with boiling water? I've read that smell is a good way to tell if there's still chlorine in the keg. And this one smells like a swimming pool.
The beer that's going in this keg is an ESB, btw.
Another question: When reassembling the keg, should I lube the dip tube o rings, then sanitize, or sanitize then lube? it seems to me you'd want to sanitize everything right before you put it back together.
Thanks.
B
I can't decide if it is the keg or my bottling method. I did sanitize the bottles (with a vintator,) and starsan before I filled them. I also rinsed the disconnect, hose, picnic tap and BMBF with starsan. The starsan was not cloudy, and was only a month old (I use DI water so a batch should last forever.) I can't currently taste anything wrong with the beer, so I'm thinking I might have a house bug, something that's resistant to starsan.
I haven't been tearing apart my kegs every refill. More like every other or maybe every three. So I am totally refurbing the kegs when they're empty from now on. This current time I'm replacing all the O-rings along with the tear down.
Instead of using starsan to sanitize this batch, I'm using 1oz vinegar and 1oz bleach per 5 gallons, as a no rinse per this section of the wiki
I just finished dumping out the keg, and it still smells strongly of chlorine. Is this normal or should I rinse the keg with boiling water? I've read that smell is a good way to tell if there's still chlorine in the keg. And this one smells like a swimming pool.
The beer that's going in this keg is an ESB, btw.
Another question: When reassembling the keg, should I lube the dip tube o rings, then sanitize, or sanitize then lube? it seems to me you'd want to sanitize everything right before you put it back together.
Thanks.
B
