beer line mystery!

[SHHHHHHH]

http://tinypic.com/r/inu92b/8

Brewers,

There is something fishy with my lines or taps. I used BLC to clean my lines by pushing it through the kegs and out the taps. Then I ran star sans through a bit, and removed the kegs letting the star sans sit in the lines for about a day. Then I kegged 3 beers, carb 2days @ 30psi, and they tasted great and super clean on day 3 of being in kegs. Last night after not tasting for a few days, all three have sharp-metallic-taste, solventy-astringint-alchohol-hotness loitering in the aftertaste. After frowning a bit, I grabbed a party tap from the closet and tapped the keg with that and it was clean-tasting-malty-pleasantyeastesters-eartyhops. The party tap will only fit one pin lock keg, the rest are ball.

It was my understanding beerstone gave off smelly sock, moldy, foul taste, and not the metallic taste I am getting. Perhaps the star san leeched into the vinal tubing? The perlik creamer faucet manual says there is no need to remove or disassemble the faucet, and running cleaner will get the internal parts and floating O-ring.

All ideas are welcome, thanks

 

[IslandLizard]

For what it's worth, BLC needs to be rinsed out with water first, followed by Starsan or some other no-rinse sanitizer.

Did you purge the Starsan from the line before tapping and drinking it? Any bare brass parts in your tapping system? I doubt your lines absorbed the Starsan.

Starsan, being acidic, reacts with and dissolves some metals like copper and brass and gives metallic off flavors. I can detect Starsan and it does have a metallic taste by itself too, but small amounts in a beer don't leave much more than just a trace.

 

[SHHHHHHH]

Interesting, maybe it is the star sans. The only copper is a pipe runs into the tower for cooling that the lines go through, but the beer itself does not touch it.

I did skip the water purge after BLC because I ran the star sans for a few min, and I tapped the keg under pressure with the taps open so the beer would immediately push out the star sans. I should rethink that...


Man, 13 gallons of beer... I did bottle at least 6 pack of each beer with fizz drops, I'll taste that to be sure it is the lines. I recently switched to RO water and food grade phosphoric for PH, I hear that stuff is tasteless, thats all I can think of.

 

[IslandLizard]

Right, your copper chiller pipe doesn't touch beer, so that's fine.

If you run enough Starsan through the lines to purge the BLC, that's the same as rinsing with water, unless the BLC reacts with Starsan. Pushing liquids with another liquid is common practice, and although some mixing takes place, it's nothing drastic in thin lines.
It's been sitting for a day now. Do this next: Pull 2 half pints from the same tap, but don't flush the line first. If they don't taste the same or both taste weird something is going on. Are those lines new, and what are they?

Phosphoric Acid is only tasteless and harmless at the typical dilutions/concentrations used in brewing. But don't be fooled, it's a strong acid! The 80-90% concentrate needs to be respected like any other acid. Even the 10% solution is wicked stuff.

 

[SHHHHHHH]

1st and 2nd pints taste the same out of all 3 taps. Also put a fizz carbed bottle in freezer and was surprised how similar it tasted to the keg, there is slight metallic-mineraly-sharpness to the body and aftertaste. I guess its not the lines, but it did not taste this way before kegging, it was "cleaner." Its not dumping category of off flavor, but I crave super clean beer, ya know? Drives me nuts.

 

[SHHHHHHH]

Even in the keg, when it was younger it did not taste like this. So yeah, I am drinking 6 pints right now, cheers! I'm feeling better and better about the situation.

 

[IslandLizard]

You may be simply experiencing Carbonic Bite from your freshly carbed beer. It can have that "metallic" taste. It goes away after a week conditioning in the keezer. But... you should also get it from your picnic tap then.

 

[LKABrewer]

You may be simply experiencing Carbonic Bite from your freshly carbed beer. It can have that "metallic" taste. It goes away after a week conditioning in the keezer. But... you should also get it from your picnic tap then.

It is possible that he is getting carbonic bite from the faucet, but when poured from a picnic tap the beer is being de-carbonated and tastes better.

 

[SHHHHHHH]

I did just get my CO2 refilled, and the picnic tap now tastes identical to the faucet today, vs, the first pour off it last night. So that is logical to me, thanks guys. Carbonic Bite is news to me, I've found a topic to read about once I get my chem homework done... Ironic that I'm studying gas laws... Would carbing at a lower pressure be wiser? Anyone use a CO2 filter?

I would have never thought of carbonic bite, if that's what is going on here. Thanks guys!

 

[IslandLizard]

I force carb a keg by rolling it back and forth (about a 1/3 rotation) at 40psi until it doesn't take up any more gas. Keep the gas disconnect and your gas line pointing UP while rocking that way! I then place it in the keezer at 10-12psi. It is usually fine the next day, but may have a little bite left which dissipates within a few days.

Look up carbonic acid. It's an interesting phenomenon. The old (ice cream) soda fountains boasted that flavor/sensation.

I never heard anyone filtering their CO2, and as long as it isn't tainted it should be unnecessary. There have been some reports where people got bad CO2 from a tank exchange and after months of agony (and posts on HBT) wanted to give up brewing altogether. That was until they returned the old and got a new tank.

 

[AintLifeGrand]

what type of cleaner do you use to clean your kegs?

oxyclean can leave a metallic taste in beer if equipment such as kegs are not thoroughly rinsed. This could be the culprit.

hopefully its just carbonic.