How common are infected kegs with commercial microbreweries?

So I was at my work's annual company meeting today where we had free beer at the end of it. I got a cup (it was at the baseball stadium, so the beer comes in plastic cups) of Redhook ESB and immediately noticed it tasted odd. The taste was slightly sour, and slightly lighter in body and less malty than seems normal for Redhook ESB. It almost tasted like it had brettanomyces, like a lambic.

So I went downstairs where they had more taps, and got a taste of the Redhook ESB keg they had down there. That one tasted normal, like a standard ESB.

The off-flavor on the keg upstairs was subtle enough that I think someone who doesn't know what brett is or what an ESB is supposed to taste like might not have noticed anything wrong.
I was going to tell them, but didn't think they'd believe me and anyway I'm still not sure whether maybe my taste buds were just off. Is it plausible for a Redhook keg to have a brett infection? Don't they test them before shipping?

I've tasted 3 bad kegs from Sam Adams. All, summer ale with good kegs before and after. They were rancid!

It also could be the lines/taps themselves. I've had some beer from some infected or dirty lines that was absolutely rank.

Yeah, I thought about the lines/taps, but these kegs were for a one-time event and I don't think they would leave kegs hooked up overnight at a stadium. So if they hooked the lines up just an hour or so before the event, that wouldn't be enough time to contaminate the keg.
I'd be surprised to get a bad keg from a microbrewery, cause that's $100+ worth of bad beer then! I wonder if they reuse kegs when distributing in retail channels or if they're all new kegs.

She's not saying the lines infected the keg. She's saying that nasty lines will make the beer taste rank on its way out of the keg.

And of course they reuse kegs. It is much rarer that you drink from a first use keg than a new one.

As far as testing each keg, nah, but they do completely and thoroughly sanitize each keg before filling.

My money is on the nasty lines also. I really doubt that a ballpark is very diligent about cleansing their beer lines between kegs.

Oh. I was thinking nasty lines would still be overpowered by the beer from the keg, which would be a much larger volume of liquid than whatever lacto quantities were in the lines. Though, I did get one of the first draws from the keg so that probably doesn't help either.

I've actually gotten metallic taste from cheap taps. It is amazing how thoroughly dirty lines or taps can affect a beer.

I always find it's best to get draft beer from places that sell a lot of it. Seems the high turnover helps to keep things fresh but also the staff are more wise on how to properly tend to kegs, lines, taps, etc. I hate watching them pour this crappy looking beer with no head that tastes like skunk a$$ and then snarl at you when you tell them there might be something wrong their keg.

However, I hate poor service more than poor beer. The funny thing is I seemed to get better service when I was younger say early 20s compared to now at 27 when I have more money and therefore a higher bill to tip on. Maybe it's just that I expect better service now because I now more fully realize how important it is. Sorry about that.

Stadiums also do not always take good care of their beer as I witnessed the other day outside of Miller Pard. Could have gotten too hot? The other day I was parked next to a shipping container at the ballpark and I watched and occasionally assisted a young lady as she pulled out beer stocked coolers that were not iced down. She would roll them out, up the curb (the part I occasionally assisted with), and then over to a stocked ice chest where she would ice them down and roll them to the various private party shelters. Figuring it was an 80+ degree day and they were sitting all day in a black shipping container I could see how the heat coudl have affected the beer.

...Fortunately it was only Miller products and those can't get ruined.

Yup, I've been to bars where fresh kegs tasted sour, simply from flowing through dirty lines. I've also been to beer fests where I've tasted the same thing. Boy talk about a crappy way to promote your beer.

YooperBrew said:

It also could be the lines/taps themselves. I've had some beer from some infected or dirty lines that was absolutely rank.

Click to expand...

Yuengling is famous for that around here, very inconsistent product and not to mention some marginal quality establishments that serve it. I had a SNPA the other day that was just disgusting, I could barely finish it. I told the waitress to clean the lines or do something because that is not supposed to taste anything near like that. Also had a Straub's Dark at another bar and it tasted like someone poured a shot of vinegar in it!!!

Relatively rare, but one brewer I know had an entire batch (7 barrels) of stout sour. He added a bunch of blackberries to it. Worked well.

Many years ago they were cleaning fairly long beer lines at a restaurant I worked at. The disgusting snot that came out of those lines prevented me from ever looking at draft beer the same again. I still avoid it to this day unless there's some way to determine that the lines are likely clean.

At the brewpub I work at, we clean the keg lines ever 1-2 weeks for ever draft line as well as the faucets. When we clean kegs we drain, rinse, spray with caustic cleaning solution, and sanitize with iodine.