coffee beer in keg

[EE_Nick]

Hi everybody,

Last year I started kegging and filled one of my kegs for the first time with a coffee flavored beer. For my second use of that keg, I filled it with a bourbon barrel porter. I am finding that my bourbon barrel porter has a coffee flavor to it.

I have read that root beer will impart its flavor on kegs/lines which cannot be removed but couldn't find any info about coffee. Did I just do a good enough job cleaning my keg/lines (this was my first time cleaning a keg) or is coffee flavor just something that stays in a keg?

 

[ChrisRyan]

Get some PBW and mix it per the directions (or dump some unknown amount into the keg like I do and then add hot water til the keg is about 1/2 full).

Seal the keg, let it soak for an hour or more both right side up and upside down so the all surfaces end up soaking.

You can toss some CO2 in the keg and run the PBW through your lines to clean those as well.

Rinse well. If you did the lines make sure you run a bunch of clean water through those as well to rinse the lines.

 

[Yooper]

The only place that can "hold" flavor is in the rubber o-rings and poppits in a keg- stainless can't. If you didn't change out those, that is likely where the flavor comes from.

Lines and other plastic/silicone can hold flavors of course.

 

[vampirebeer]

a little coffee in bourbon porter doesn't sound like a bad thing...

I'm not sure of the method you used to clean your keg, but I completely disassemble my kegs when I clean them. I clean the inside of the dip tube and even clean the little parts with a tooth brush. I use oxyclean first, then after everything is rinsed I soak it in starsan.

 

[EE_Nick]

Thanks everybody for the advice, I took the keg apart and soaked everything in starsan overnight. Sounds like I need to do a better job cleaning my kegs.

The coffee addition to the bourbon porter wasn't bad at all, just unexpected, lol.