Bad taste only after kegging?

[mprowland]

I have made 15-20 AG batches so far. For some reason, after I chiil it in the fridge and add CO2 to it, I always get an "alcohol" taste to it. The beer does NOT have this taste when I transfer to the keg. This seems to happen to any style beer. I have two typical corny kegs that I sanitize after every use with StarSan. I also clean the lines and rinse with the same solution. I don't want to give up on the hobby but I'm at wits end. I have yet to make a beer that I'm proud to share. Thanks for any input.

 

[pvpeacock]

I had a similar problem, but I would characterize the off flavor as more bandaid or soap like. I couldn't figure it out and was always very diligent about cleaning and sanitizing my keg and keg lines/taps with starsan. In addition, I bought these small brushes which I religiously dipped in starsan and put in the beer faucets after every use to keep them clean. Well, one night, I forgot to put the brush back in the faucet. The next day, I poured a glass of beer from that tap and the off flavor was gone. I have kept the brushes out of my taps ever since and the off flavor has never returned. I now suspect/know that the starsan was causing my off flavor. Not sure this is your problem, but I would try rinsing all the starsan out of your lines. In addition, I would try a sample of beer out of the top of your keg without it going through any beer lines to see if the flavor is in the keg or in the lines. Good luck.

 

[mprowland]

Thanks for the reply. I usually go through a couple of kegs before I rinse out my lines. I sanitize the keg every time, just not the lines. I like the idea of bypassing the lines and tap and trying it right from the keg itself. This will at least cut most of the potential problems out of the loop. I'll try this when I get home from work. Thanks again!

 

[solbes]

I had an off flavor in my kegged beer until I got diligent about cleaning the lines after every keg kicks. The lines get 1 day of Oxy soak, a hot water rinse, followed by a few hours of Starsan soak. The off flavor probably came from the mostly unrefridgerated space inside the tower. And the off flavor was always worse in the summer when that tower was warmer.

I use the DIY keg line cleaner that is in this forum (the one with the weed sprayer from HD with a hand pump and a ball lock fitting on the end). Super quick and easy. I have my keg soaking up to the top in Oxy. Then use the keg line cleaner tool to rinse with water and then get the Starsan in there. If starsan causes off flavors, it would be the first I'd heard of it. Maybe it was the bristles in the brush reacting to the phosphoric acid.

Good tip on trying the beer in the keg, as I also bet its good.

 

[beersk]

It could also be your siphoning system... Somewhere to check. Does it seem to get worse? Like, have you tapped the keg the day after kegging and it's there or does it show up after a couple weeks?

I had a stainless racking cane that wasn't clean, even though I thoroughly rinsed it after each use. But I switched to a closed transfer (both systems were used when fermenting in kegs), and the issue went away. So, I'd siphon the beer out of the primary fermentation keg to the serving keg with said racking cane, then switched to a closed transfer with a jumper hose and the issue went away.