Anyone experience oxidation on a keg when transporting it?

[malkore]

This is gonna be a little long winded, and I'm a little druck tonite.

So I had a full 5 gallon corny, pre-chilled and carbed. Pre-tasted it and it was good beer. Kolsch...pretty ripe for drinking. I had to transport it for 3.5 hours in July, but I had half of it on ice, with a towel covering the rest, and it went into a cold fridge when I arrived.

The next day I hooked up my portable charger, but didn't hit the trigger since the keg was already carbed.

well the tap was dead. no pressure. so i charged it and we drank the beer. at this point, it had a funny flavor to it, but i thought it was just cuz it was flat and i was using a cheap Co2 charger.

well I poured a glass tonite, 3 weeks after bringing it back from the the party...and i couldn't enjoy it. i think i'm tasting oxidation for the first time. the initial flavor is almost right, and then this weird flat after taste sets in.

points to consider:

I do purge my kegs several times after filling. never had a problem doing it this way.
This keg did seem to seal just fine before the trip. and its still sealing in my keezer. only somehow during transport did it lose pressure.
It was a new keg that I may not have gotten perfectly clean. I thought I did...but now i question it. If it wasn't clean it wasn't sanitized either.

I pulled it from my keezer. I think i'm gonna dump it. its a kolsch..it has nothing to hide off flavors. no maltiness, no big IBU's.

any ideas what went wrong, and do you think its just oxidation? if it lost pressure, air prolly got in, and now 3 weeks later I have stale beer?? its definitely not a sour taste, nor is it astringent so I don't suspect tannins.

 

[RICLARK]

If it was dead when you first tried it, you probably have a leak. I have one keg that has crappy feet on the lid. So I have to pull up on the lid and hit it with the gas to get it to make a good seal. So it sounds to me like either a leak or you somehow broke the seal while transporting.

 

[malkore]

I think it somehow only leaked during transport. When i got it home I put it on gas for a day, then removed the gas for a day. when I pulled the safety valve, it seemed to still have the right amount of pressure (long hiss, not a quick puff and then nothing).

I'll probably keep it and use it for the liquid pan in my charcoal smoker. Or get my dogs REALLY druck.

Only other thought is I did not get the keg cleaned good enough and its just picking up a funk...and the whole loss of pressure thing was a fluke coincidence.

 

[EvilTOJ]

I've tasted oxidation before. When they say it's like wet cardboard, they aren't kidding. I would suspect that it isn't a perfectly clean keg making it go weird.