1 Week - KEG IS AWESOME; 2 Week - WTF

Always kegged and only issues I've had with sour/vinegar beer is due to poor fermentation. Since I've corrected those issues, I'm at a loss for this one.

Kegged an irish ale and for the first time, I let it naturally carb with 2.5 oz of priming sugar for two weeks. Put it in the kegerator. Waited two days, and I served myself great tasting beer. (so great, that I now will naturally carb most, if not all, future batches). Tried my Holiday Ale and Hef the same day and they were also good. Tried my Irish last night after being in the kegerator for 2 weeks and it's slightly sour. Today is still sour. Hef is sour. Holiday Ale doesn't taste right. I thought the Hef was going a little sour before I put in the Irish Red, but I had a cold and thought it was due to that.

I have a splitter on my CO2 line, with one line going to Holiday Ale, and the other line is split again to the Hef and Irish. I use BLC after each keg for the lines, and run lots of hot water afterwards.

What is going on? What would cause one beer to sour in the keg (no signs of infection at all), and seemingly pass it on to my other kegs?

Acid character leads me to think you have a sanitation issue. Perhaps you need to completely break down the serving lines, tap, shank, kegs and do a solid cleaning on everything. Or you got air into those two kegs. As well, check your brewing equipment, may be time to replace transfer lines, brewing buckets, etc...anywhere pedio, enteric, lacto, etc can hide.

I had a similar issue, though not soured, my beers refermented after bottling from the keg. I cleaned everything like it was going to be implanted into my body, and it's been fine ever since.

I found dip tubes and picnic taps to be the biggest offenders. I actually swap out my out lines with picnic tapes every 2 weeks.

Do you have check valves on each side of the splitter?

Actually, I do not have a check valve on each line after the splitter. Thinking beer got backed up in the lines and now causing problems?

not necessarily beer, but if there is a clear path of travel between the kegs, and you pour a beer from one of the kegs, gas from the other is going to flow into the one you poured from and can carry bacteria with it.

audger said:

not necessarily beer, but if there is a clear path of travel between the kegs, and you pour a beer from one of the kegs, gas from the other is going to flow into the one you poured from and can carry bacteria with it.

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Umm....What?

Cheers!

Are you boiling your priming sugar 15 minutes before introducing it to the keg?

Aunt_Ester said:

Are you boiling your priming sugar 15 minutes before introducing it to the keg?

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Yes, but what would priming sugar have to do with one keg going bad and seemingly the other two to be affected?

Well, it's possible that bacteria could be domiciled with your priming sugar, especially if you're opening and saving bags of priming sugar.

Just trying to remove some variables from the situation. If you're boiling, then I would reinspect the cleaning regiment for your hardware.

I got bit not having check valves a couple of months ago. One of the beers on gas froze a little, and backed up into the other beers that were carbonating. You can get check valves from usplastics.com for <3$ each, and you will never have to worry about it again.

Bensiff said:

Acid character leads me to think you have a sanitation issue. Perhaps you need to completely break down the serving lines, tap, shank, kegs and do a solid cleaning on everything. Or you got air into those two kegs. As well, check your brewing equipment, may be time to replace transfer lines, brewing buckets, etc...anywhere pedio, enteric, lacto, etc can hide.

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Do you include the line that comes from the C02 tank as well or just the serving lines? I've always soaked absolutely everything to be safe but just thought I'd ask.

Catnip_X07 said:

Always kegged and only issues I've had with sour/vinegar beer is due to poor fermentation. Since I've corrected those issues, I'm at a loss for this one.

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I'm guessing that you haven't corrected those issues.

Catnip_X07 said:

What is going on? What would cause one beer to sour in the keg (no signs of infection at all), and seemingly pass it on to my other kegs?

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Possible (although I can't see how), but a more likely source is your racking cane, tubing, or other some other point on the "cold-side" of your process, since all of your beers are becoming infected as time goes on.

I had numerous batches like this and my culprit was my CFC, I believe I had an aceto infection and it would take time for the beer to sour with no visible sings of infection. If I had it on tap 3-4 weeks after brewing it was fine for the first week, a little off by the second, and not drinkable by the third week on tap.

What is the CFC? Counter Flow Chiller?

Definitely sanitize your gas equipment, replace the tubing, put in check valves, and check all the rest of your equipment that touches your beer post-boil.

I've been thinking about this a little more and the post about beer line freezing and backing into other kegs reminded me. I had a keg of cream ale that was soured and I let it condition for many months. It finally mellowed and got better. However, I think the cream ale went into the gas line and entered the keg of my Hef that had just been placed onto the line for carbonation. When I finished the cream ale, I scrubbed it all but didn't think about the gas line. Hef started being a little sour tasting first, then spread to my new Irish where there is not a check valve after the split line.

After tasting my Holiday Ale again yesterday evening, it tastes fine. Could be something with the gas line on the shared/split connection?

What's the best way to go about it? Soak the lines in sanitizer, then get check valves after the split?

I was going thru all of my connections and ready to disassemble the gas lines when I noticed the CO2 tank was empty. I suppose the residual gas pressure was allowing me to fill my glasses.

I disassembled the gas lines, starsan'd them, put them back on and refilled my CO2. After one day, the Hef is back to being a Hef; the Irish is slowly turning back to being good. The Holiday Ale still tastes like a sweet bitter chocolate, but that's what it was supposed to taste like.

I didn't purge the keg prior to blasting with new CO2.

Catnip_X07 said:

I was going thru all of my connections and ready to disassemble the gas lines when I noticed the CO2 tank was empty. I suppose the residual gas pressure was allowing me to fill my glasses.

I disassembled the gas lines, starsan'd them, put them back on and refilled my CO2. After one day, the Hef is back to being a Hef; the Irish is slowly turning back to being good. The Holiday Ale still tastes like a sweet bitter chocolate, but that's what it was supposed to taste like.

I didn't purge the keg prior to blasting with new CO2.

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whoa, hold up there....if your beers are truly infected, they don't get better. They are infected.

Maybe they were just a little green and not up to proper carb levels?

I think the carb levels may have had the largest impact. Something I should start with first in case this happens again.

I did NOT see ANY signs of infection and everything now tastes the way it should.

Man, I NEVER get this lucky when something goes wrong for me! Cheers!