I forgot to purge my keg. is my beer ruined?

[omazing]

I just kegged today, two hours later i remember i didn't purge the keg out of oxygen. i went and i purged it right away. is my beer affected? the pressure was 25PSI at 70F.

thanks

 

[gunhaus]

Yup - completely shot!!! Where are you? I will run over and get rid of it for you . . . You know so you don't have to go through the pain of dumping it yourself!!!! Just point it out, and go away for a couple hours I will SEE TO IT . . . . .

 

[gunhaus]

For years, I filled my kegs through the open lid, with a racking cane and tube. Filled them up, purged a couple times, then set and forget. They sure got exposed to air during the process, and somehow they still tasted good, and not one tasted like the dreaded wet cardboard! I am thinking a couple hours is not going to kill you beer dead or anything.

 

[omazing]

Yup - completely shot!!! Where are you? I will run over and get rid of it for you . . . You know so you don't have to go through the pain of dumping it yourself!!!! Just point it out, and go away for a couple hours I will SEE TO IT . . . . .

It’s my second time kegging and I’m a rookie.

 

[omazing]

For years, I filled my kegs through the open lid, with a racking cane and tube. Filled them up, purged a couple times, then set and forget. They sure got exposed to air during the process, and somehow they still tasted good, and not one tasted like the dreaded wet cardboard! I am thinking a couple hours is not going to kill you beer dead or anything.

I did fill the keg with a cane but I didn’t purge. Seems like the beer will be fine hopefully. My first time kegging there was an odd taste in the beer that’s why I was worried.

 

[mredge73]

You are fine; at 70F the yeast are still active and likely already scrubbed the o2 that got dissolved in this short period of time.

First time kegging, new lines may contribute a little of this odd taste if you weren't aggressive with your first cleaning.
Could also be oils from the kegs and faucets if they were new. Hopefully it goes away.

 

[cubalz]

No, the beer is fine. Will it be as good as it could have been had you purged it? Hard to say. It is a highly debated topic not unlike HSA. If the beer tasted good going into your keg, it will taste just fine going out even if you did not purge it.

 

[gunhaus]

Agreed - Those new lines can give off a funny taste. And the surface area of the beer exposed to O2 is not really that huge in the keg. And as stated you may just have had some natural co2 "purging" if you like. When I pieced together my very first keg set up, I filled one of my kegs with a Newcastle Brown style Brown Ale, then tossed it in the fridge for two weeks while the other keg gassed up. And it was only when I went to hook up the Brown ale two week later that i realized i did not purge that tank after filling. We drank it anyway and NO ONE complained of cardboard or flatness, or anything else really except that it ran dry too soon. Things happen, beers do get ruined. BUT, I think most of the time most beers are far more forgiving than we give them credit for. STILL, if you are really worried . . .my original offer stands and i can come "take care of it" for ya!!!

 

[BrewInspector]

I would reasonably assume that many do not purge their kegs prior to filling instead opting to purge filled kegs by venting repeatedly. Then there are those that perform a closed transfer under pressure of co2 filled kegs which would be a more protective level than attempting to fill an open container with invisible gas. Everything will be fine.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Youll be fine...hard to judge co2 levels carbing at 70 degs burst carbing. (what your doing)

If you just started carbing a few hours ago I would disconnect the gas,purge out pressure to zero and let it chill overnight. Then start carbing at serving temp around 36/38 deg. Co2 gets absorbed at different rates at different temps. Most/all start carbing at cold/serving temps. Tested and proven burst carb methods are:
40 psi for 24 hours at serving temp, purge and drop to serving pressure
30 psi for 36 hours at serving temps,purge and drop to serving pressure
I do 40 psi for a quicker turnaround.
You'll be lost on your carb level carbing at 70 and dropping the temp in the fridge as no one really does it that way.
Or you could just leave it 12 psi for 2 weeks but who wants to wait 2 weeks when they can be drinking the next day...especially as a new kegger...I'm sure your chopin at the bit

 

[day_trippr]

Physics is actually a pretty stable thing. If one follows a carbonation chart, table or calculator and plugs in the beer temperature they are going to get the same recommended pressure for that temperature every time, and that keg will carb up at the same rate every time. Doesn't matter what the temperature is, there is a solution...

The Brewer's Friend forced carbonation calculator is pretty good, I recommend it.
Plug in your desired volumes of CO2 and your beer temperature and it spits out the correct pressure.
Every time.

As for the OP's dilemma, I'm going to assume the keg wasn't purged of O2 to begin with, so leaving air in the head space for a few hours isn't really going to change much. I recommend enjoying that beer...quicker than longer...

Cheers!

 

[gunhaus]

There is a great deal of obsession about O2 these days. I say, do everything you can to minimize it, but don't get worked up or fret over minor exposures. They are gonna happen. I know there are those these days who think that a single oxygen molecule will destroy their beer, instantly turning it to a tasteless bucket of watery cardboard. Earthquakes will happen, locusts, boils, frogs from the sky, dogs sleeping with cats, etc. And if you like all the gadgets, and complex sealed systems and CO2 transfers etc, go for it - It sure can't hurt and a may truly be the panacea - But if you do not have these things to start, and have to build up to this level slowly; Then do so and don't give it a second thought. For millennia, beer was built in LESS than air tight conditions, and it was transferred in most likely less than scientific grade CO2 purged conditions. And it was transferred multiple times and shipped under rugged circumstances, and still the end product was good enough to keep beer one of the most popular food stuffs in all of history. There are many of us i think, on this site, who in our early ignorance, made our beers in buckets, and carboys, and after a couple of weeks we would innocently take our cane or hose and siphon that beer off into a secondary (God forbid!) All the while ignorantly allowing the very air we breathed to touch the golden liquids! THEN - believe it or not - we used the SAME hose or cane to transfer AGAIN through the atmosphere and into YET ANOTHER bucket where we then set the lid askew on top and racked or siphoned, or if we we REALLY sophisticated, dribbled the beer through the spigot we had installed on our bottle bucket (They did not always sell those ya know!) And for an hour or two we would drain that beer with O2 coming in the top, and beer coming out the bottom into bottles. If we worked alone, it was common to fill 6-8 and then cap them and move on. And somehow - through all of it, we managed to make beer that tasted good, made us happy, pleased our family and intoxicated our pals. SOME OF IT even won competitions!!!! Can ya believe it! Obsession and attention to details is a very good thing - especially if it makes you happy! But don't get caught up in the HAVE TO movement that crops up. Make your beer with what you have, do your best, and learn. You'll get a lot further making more beer with less gear, than you will NOT making beer because you are worrying about not having the latest sealed system with atomic temperature controllers or making transfers in the current trendy manner. 'Course - I could be completely wrong! But I can live with that too! I know how to make a magic beverage that soothes anxieties!

 

[beernutz]

If you have not done any purging of O2 you essentially have real ale which should be good for at least a couple of weeks then drinkable for maybe a few more unless you really aerated the beer during the process of kegging.

You can at least purge the headspace in your keg multiple times at a high CO2 pressure to eliminate almost all of the O2 there.

 

[MaryB]

I use bottling buckets to ferment in(6.5 gallon) and use a piece of tubing to fill my kegs, it reaches the bottom of the keg. Open lid, fill, put lid on, put under CO2 right away, purge in 2 hours and don't worry about it. If the keg is going to sit outside the fridge I will purge it in 24 hours because CO2 will build up a bit on its own.

 

[MaryB]

No kidding! Back in the early 80's nobody had even heard of low O2 brewing and sometimes a case of beer got set aside for a year if it was a special holiday beer!

There is a great deal of obsession about O2 these days. I say, do everything you can to minimize it, but don't get worked up or fret over minor exposures. They are gonna happen. I know there are those these days who think that a single oxygen molecule will destroy their beer, instantly turning it to a tasteless bucket of watery cardboard. Earthquakes will happen, locusts, boils, frogs from the sky, dogs sleeping with cats, etc. And if you like all the gadgets, and complex sealed systems and CO2 transfers etc, go for it - It sure can't hurt and a may truly be the panacea - But if you do not have these things to start, and have to build up to this level slowly; Then do so and don't give it a second thought. For millennia, beer was built in LESS than air tight conditions, and it was transferred in most likely less than scientific grade CO2 purged conditions. And it was transferred multiple times and shipped under rugged circumstances, and still the end product was good enough to keep beer one of the most popular food stuffs in all of history. There are many of us i think, on this site, who in our early ignorance, made our beers in buckets, and carboys, and after a couple of weeks we would innocently take our cane or hose and siphon that beer off into a secondary (God forbid!) All the while ignorantly allowing the very air we breathed to touch the golden liquids! THEN - believe it or not - we used the SAME hose or cane to transfer AGAIN through the atmosphere and into YET ANOTHER bucket where we then set the lid askew on top and racked or siphoned, or if we we REALLY sophisticated, dribbled the beer through the spigot we had installed on our bottle bucket (They did not always sell those ya know!) And for an hour or two we would drain that beer with O2 coming in the top, and beer coming out the bottom into bottles. If we worked alone, it was common to fill 6-8 and then cap them and move on. And somehow - through all of it, we managed to make beer that tasted good, made us happy, pleased our family and intoxicated our pals. SOME OF IT even won competitions!!!! Can ya believe it! Obsession and attention to details is a very good thing - especially if it makes you happy! But don't get caught up in the HAVE TO movement that crops up. Make your beer with what you have, do your best, and learn. You'll get a lot further making more beer with less gear, than you will NOT making beer because you are worrying about not having the latest sealed system with atomic temperature controllers or making transfers in the current trendy manner. 'Course - I could be completely wrong! But I can live with that too! I know how to make a magic beverage that soothes anxieties!

 

[MrRogi]

atomic temperature controllers

Where do I get one these atomic temperature controllers?

 

[gunhaus]

Ask MiltonHVAC that sort of thing is his territory.