Have I just ruined my brew?

[waltonburger]

My beer is in a pressure barrel and was holding good pressure, pouring a lovely pint with a good head.

Now I'm about a 3rd way down the barrel and the flow wasn't anywhere near a high as the first few, so I decided it was time to inject some co2.

I screwed on the bulb but when it pierced - the co2 didnt inject into the barrel. I tightened further and still nothing, then some started to escape from the bulb at the top. When I unscrewed all the co2 came out, and none into the barrel

I was hoping some had made it into the barrel and tried the tap to pour off a little bit into a glass.

There was still no pressure and the tap drew some air up into barrel!! Ahhhh!

I'm guessing I have a faulty / blocked injector cap?

And ....how long do I have to drink the beer before it is ruined due to air bit introduced?

 

[stpug]

It sounds like a faulty/blocked injector cap might be issue, as you mentioned. The other possibility is that the pressure in the barrel was equal or greater than the little bulb could push. You might have tried pouring a glass with the bulb still screwed in to the injector.

IMO, a little bit of air is not a problem, especially if you still have any yeast living in the barrel. Any living yeast should quickly absorb any oxygen that was introduced. But definitely try to keep the tap-air-uptake to a minimum.

Figure our the injector issue, and try again.

If you filled the entire headspace with air (which you didn't) I would venture a guess that you had 2-3 weeks to finish it up, but that's a total guess.