2nd brew tastes like the first after carbonated...

Sorry for bringing up another kegging off flavor question. I swear ive searched and read for days! First off this is my second brew, a pumpkin ported and the first was a holiday ale. Ive tried both in their secondary and both have tasted great! Transfered to the keg and let condition for a month before trying. The first I filled to 12psi and let condition while the second i tried 26psi to try and carb at 66* which did nothing.

After 3 weeks i turned on the fridge and let them carb at 12psi/ 40-45* for a week. First taste I thought the beer hadnt conditioned long enough. The carbonation seemed fine but the flavor just wasnt there... I even double the spice packs and could barely notice them. I let the beer sit for another two weeks with no noticeable difference.

The second which was my porter i tried after two days in the fridge to see if the high pressure at room temp would carb it. Definitely no carbonation but the beer seemed to of lost a lot of its flavor? After a week in the fridge it carbed up and seemed to have slightly more flavor than the first brew but that green carbonated flavor still there.

Im so frustrated knowing ive spent so much time and money and have this to show for it...I tried to be extremely meticulous when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing. I use AHS one step cleaner and AHS one step sanitizer. So I dont believe that to be the problem. The keg I have is what worries me. I purchases a keg of craigslist that was hyro dated back in 94' and was full when i got it. After reading thread after thread it doesnt seem that it can go bad? Another thing I read about it over purging. I check my keg every couple of days to make sure it still is pressurized and hit it with co2 to top it off again. Is this killing it?

I currently just put in a keg of water im going to carb up at 12psi and check it for off flavors. I just dont know what else to do. I have another holiday ale i secondaried last night and definitely do not want to go through the same thing again.
Lemme know what you guys think! Thanks A.J.-

 

Are you leaving the keg on the gas. If your just pressurizing and removing the gas that could be why your beers are not carbing up properly. Because the gas will be absorbed into the beer diminishing the overall pressure in the keg.

 

So you're purging your keg every couple days? I suppose that could release some aroma. You really shouldn't need to do that, check for leaks once then be done with it.

Are you actually detecting off flavors or does the beer just not seem as flavorful as before? If it is the latter, are you letting the beers warm up a bit before you drink them? I'd think those styles would be better served around cellar temps, wondering if you could be muting the flavors by drinking too cold. Just a thought.

 

No, im not leaving the keg on gas, thats the reason i keep checking to see if it has pressure because i expected it to absorb alot of the Co2. Im not really having a problem carbing. I just tried the high pressure method to see if it would work. Ill stick to just refrigerating it for a week. Seemed to work fine that route.

 

I guess im just paranoid the keg is going to loose pressure and i dont want to leave it sit for a month w/o it... Its deffinately not as flavorful as before. But the reason i thought it was the co2, is before the beer even carbed after 3 weeks in the keg, it seemed to have a different taste to it. I wish i could explain it better which is why i thought it tasted green. The flavor from the spices just isnt there. The beer is still drinkable and doesnt taste bad just doesnt taste anything like it did in the secondary...
Im going to try and up the temp in the fridge after i try this water in a couple days.
I have a clear vinyl hose i got from the hardware store that i run from the reg- tank. Could that affect the taste?

Thanks for the fast replys!

 

Edit: nevermind, I didn't read your post closely enough.