Forgot to Purge a Keg: What will happen?

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Jekster

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I'm expecting to get a RDWHAHB here, but I'm asking just to make sure.

The other day I kegged a batch of gumball head clone and accidentally forgot to purge the Corney of O2. When I finished I put the keg into my fridge and let it chill overnight and then hit it with 30 PSI that day. While I was at work I realized what I had forgotten to do and when I got home (about 8-10 hours later) I simply released all the pressure from the keg, opened the top and hit it with co2 for a few seconds making sure there was only co2 left in the keg. I then put the top back on and placed it back at 30 PSI to keep carbing.

My question: Did I just force a ton of O2 into my brew and ruin the batch or will it be ok? I didn't shake the corney at all during the entire process and I'm hoping that if anything got forced into solution it was only co2 and any o2 (lighter) was forced against the top of the corney. I'm not a chem major though and don't know the exact science behinds pressures so a more specialized expert would be helpful.

Thanks as always fellow brewers for helping out.
 
Soulive said:

Sweet, thank goodness. This is my first repeat batch because I loved it so much. I would have hated to see all the time and ingredients go to waste over one minor slip-up.

Does anyone know if my theory about the o2 is correct? I'm just curious about the science now...
 
There's no way to know how much O2 was even in the keg. When you racked in, any CO2 that was in solution got russled out and into the headspace. You may not have even had 3 cubic inches of air (which don't forget is only 20% oxygen) in there. No worries.
 
The primary period of concern for oxygenation with kegs is during the fill process. As Bobby_M points out, CO2 evolves from the beer during the transfer forcing air out. Once the keg is full, there is very little, if any, O2 left in the headspace.
 
I've never purged my kegs. I keep meaning to, but I keep forgetting - and it has never caused any noticeable oxidation, so I'm not losing any sleep over it.
 
That being said, having an extra CO2 tank makes me do crazy paranoid things like purge the kegs before filling and even adding a couple shots of CO2 during the fill process. I don't think it's necessary but it makes me happy. Or maybe that's just the onset of oxygen deprivation.
 
Bobby_M said:
That being said, having an extra CO2 tank makes me do crazy paranoid things like purge the kegs before filling and even adding a couple shots of CO2 during the fill process. I don't think it's necessary but it makes me happy. Or maybe that's just the onset of oxygen deprivation.


I do the same thing... I purge a little co2 in the gas-in before racking into the keg. I figure it takes 10 seconds to do it and will help the beer out to some degree.
 
Bobby_M said:
That being said, having an extra CO2 tank makes me do crazy paranoid things like purge the kegs before filling and even adding a couple shots of CO2 during the fill process. I don't think it's necessary but it makes me happy. Or maybe that's just the onset of oxygen deprivation.
I'm sure I'd do the same if I had another tank/reg. As it is, I have to do quite a bit of keg- and hose-wrangling to get access to CO2, since I've got things rather tightly packed in my sanyo 4912 kegerator, with the tank in the back.
 
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