Jsbeckton
Well-Known Member
Ok, a while back I had a nice clear APA kegged but I needed room in the freezer to force carbonate a few kegs of IPA. So I took the keg of APA, already carbonated, and disconnected it from the CO2 and put it in another freezer at serving temp to store while the IPA was carbonating. After 2 weeks I put the APA back in the original freezer, hooked it back up to the CO2, and drew a beer. Terrible!
The once crystal-clear beer was now cloudy, darker, and tasted terrible. The nice malt character was replaced by a sharp, somewhat astringent, fizzy taste. By this time the beer was about 3 months old or so but I have no idea how the beer went so bad so fast without leaving the keg? A friend said that it tasted oxidized and that was probably what happened. But this didn't really make sense because the keg was never opened.
In the end I dumped it and chalked it up to an freak mystery. Now this past weekend I had a keg of blonde ale that I had brewed with a friend about a month ago. To split the keg he said he used a jumper (I wasn't there, but I trust him) to push half from the original to his keg. After 2 days i went to draw a beer and it was the same thing. Cloudy, much darker, and with that odd taste.
At least this time there was a transfer so of course a possibility that it was oxygen, but given the similar result I wanted to make sure it was not something else.
Anybody ever have this happen? From what i have read the typical tell that it is oxygen is a cardboard taste which i really don't get. Does oxyginated beer also change color and become cloudy? Could this have really happened this fast?
FYI, I also tend to cut the CO2 and purge the relief valve a bit before drawing a beer to limit foam (I do have 6' lines). Not sure if this is a problem.
Any help wouldd be greatly appreciated, both times this has occured just when the beer was really starting to taste great so it's sucha shame to lose it.
Thanks,
Josh
The once crystal-clear beer was now cloudy, darker, and tasted terrible. The nice malt character was replaced by a sharp, somewhat astringent, fizzy taste. By this time the beer was about 3 months old or so but I have no idea how the beer went so bad so fast without leaving the keg? A friend said that it tasted oxidized and that was probably what happened. But this didn't really make sense because the keg was never opened.
In the end I dumped it and chalked it up to an freak mystery. Now this past weekend I had a keg of blonde ale that I had brewed with a friend about a month ago. To split the keg he said he used a jumper (I wasn't there, but I trust him) to push half from the original to his keg. After 2 days i went to draw a beer and it was the same thing. Cloudy, much darker, and with that odd taste.
At least this time there was a transfer so of course a possibility that it was oxygen, but given the similar result I wanted to make sure it was not something else.
Anybody ever have this happen? From what i have read the typical tell that it is oxygen is a cardboard taste which i really don't get. Does oxyginated beer also change color and become cloudy? Could this have really happened this fast?
FYI, I also tend to cut the CO2 and purge the relief valve a bit before drawing a beer to limit foam (I do have 6' lines). Not sure if this is a problem.
Any help wouldd be greatly appreciated, both times this has occured just when the beer was really starting to taste great so it's sucha shame to lose it.
Thanks,
Josh