Why does my transported kegs end up with watered down beer?

[paulshe]

Hello,

So, this has now happened twice so I want to figure out how to avoid it. I have a theory but figured I throw it out to the masses for opinion.

Here goes:
I have a three keg kegerator in my house. One issue is that over time the back wall of the fridge freezes. Since it's a tight fit this also has ended up with frozen kegs when they are less than half full. Last weekend I loaded up my new travel kegerator for my daughters wedding. It's a garbage can with a very classy lid. Pictures below. Anyway I load 4 kegs in that include 2 that may be partially frozen. Throw a bag of ice in to keep the thing a little cold during transport. This is friday. After a 5 hour drive I set up the kegerator and fill it with ice. This keeps it pretty cold. In the past it stays at a nice cold serving temp for 6 or 7 hours easy. The beer was fro the rehearsal dinner and was a great hit. Served caramel apple cider, BM Witty Wedding Beer, Chocolate Oatmeal Porter, and Irish Pink Ale. So the kegerator sat for the next two days. I fed a little more ice into but not much. Load up on sunday for the ride home. If certainly hit normal 70/80 degrees on the way home. Get home. Throw the non empties back into the kegerator and test pour. My porter tastes super thin, like almost time to throw it out. My Irish Ale a little thinner than what it was previously.

So what happened? About a month ago a similar thing happened when I served all day and picked up the following day.

My theory, the kegs were partially frozen. I kept them cold enough such tat they stayed that way on friday night and some of saturday. Saturday/sunday the frozen sides melt back into liquid. Meanwhile a bunch of the non frozen beer was consumed. When the sides melt you know have a different mix of beer since the frozen part concentrated alcohol then released it back.

So does this make sense? My short term solution is to avoid the freeze altogether by keeping my kegerator at a higher temp.

Other thoughts?

 

[Brettomomyces]

The freezing/thawing idea is probably correct. I have had that happen once in the winter when a keg froze. Even after only drinking a little of my eis-beer the resulting beer when it thawed later was pretty thin, like it lost something.

You should figure out some better temperature control for your kegerator though...maybe an stc controller? Do you have a temp controller now?

 

[paulshe]

My kegerator is the "second" fridge in our house. Recently the back plate that provides the coldest has been getting moist and freezing. I've adjusted the temp. My other problem is probably that the kegs physically touch the plate which i suspect causes them to freeze. Right now I can't fit 3 without them touching the plate. So I may need to work that a bit by cutting out the door. By the way my is like 13 cu foot fridge. In my opinion a great size for a kegerator that I don't see many people using.

 

[doug293cz]

I agree that your theory is probably correct. A partially frozen keg allowed you to serve concentrated beer, and what was left got diluted even more by the ice when it melted.


Brew on

 

[jwalk4]

Home kegerator problem: Maybe cut a piece of cardboard and use it as a barrier between the back plate and the kegs, until you find a more permanent solution?