help there's a weird sediment in my keg beer

[fluketamer]

never had this problem before. but suddenly 2/3 of the way through my last keg there is a wierd sediment coming out of the tap. its insoluable. and looks like salt or sugar that collects at the bottom of the glass after it settles for a minute. its a very dense heavy sediment. looks crystaline. i never had this before over the last 2 years of kegging. the beer tastes fine and i can let it settle out in a pitcher and pour it but i cant serve it like this and i would feel bad if i did. i havent cleaned my lines in the last few kegs. could it be this. could this be coming from the beer. and not the lines. ?

very strange casue it never happened before/

one time in a pub i had a beer with similar sediment and they blamed it on recent line cleaning.


the only difference in this keg than the last few is that i keg hopped it but that never gave me sediment in the past.
there is a floating diptube in the keg. and one of those little filters.
i am going to tap the keg with a minitap or picnic to see if its coming from keg and not lines .

i will prolly do a kegerator break down and clean everything casue not sure what else to do.

need help on this one.

thanks

 

[day_trippr]

Whatever it is it's almost certainly coming from the keg as the lines aren't going to hold hardly anything.

To give us a hint what's going on I suggest you pour some into a straight sided unbranded glass with some back-lighting and post a picture of it for us to peruse...

Cheers!

 

[sibelman]

floating diptube

So these "crystals" settle fairly fast in a glass or pitcher but are picked up by the floating dip tube! That's especially unexpected, as you'd think they'd all be settled on the bottom of the keg some distance below, even if it's only 1/3 full now. Maybe also pictures of the crystals by themselves would help. What kind of beer? How long has it been in the kettle? Did you make any mineral (or other crystalline) additions?

 

[fluketamer]

i will do so tomorrow working late today. why would it get sediment. the beer tastes fine and its not infected. how is the sediment it making it past the filter.

when i first pour it it is evenly distributed then quickly settles to the bottom and is easily rousable. it is insoluble tho. its very strange for me. i havent done anything different with this keg. it only has an ounce of keg hops.

ill add pic tomorow .

So these "crystals" settle fairly fast in a glass or pitcher but are picked up by the floating dip tube! That's especially unexpected, as you'd think they'd all be settled on the bottom of the keg some distance below, even if it's only 1/3 full now. Maybe also pictures of the crystals by themselves would help. What kind of beer? How long has it been in the kettle? Did you make any mineral (or other crystalline) additions?

its an ipa
it has 3 ounces of dry hop and 1 ounce of keg hop.

i am not sure by what you mean how long has it been in the kettle if you mean the keg its only been in the keg for 1 month now.

i did make mineral additions to this one but very minimally . . specifically i added 1/2 teaspoon of calcium chloride and 1/2 of gypsum but they dissolved completely in the mash water before i doughed in.
i am also very surprised that the floating diptube is able to pick up the sediment but then it quickly settles like you said.

thanks for the replies

 

[BrewZer]

i will do so tomorrow working late today. why would it get sediment. the beer tastes fine and its not infected. how is the sediment it making it past the filter.

when i first pour it it is evenly distributed then quickly settles to the bottom and is easily rousable. it is insoluble tho. its very strange for me. i havent done anything different with this keg. it only has an ounce of keg hops.

ill add pic tomorow .


its an ipa
it has 3 ounces of dry hop and 1 ounce of keg hop.

i am not sure by what you mean how long has it been in the kettle if you mean the keg its only been in the keg for 1 month now.

i did make mineral additions to this one but very minimally . . specifically i added 1/2 teaspoon of calcium chloride and 1/2 of gypsum but they dissolved completely in the mash water before i doughed in.
i am also very surprised that the floating diptube is able to pick up the sediment but then it quickly settles like you said.

thanks for the replies

What's your water supply? I'm guessing something in your additions or your recipe is precipitating some mineral out of the mix.

 

[day_trippr]

I literally waited to read ^that^ before sending this
Do you happen to have an acid neutralizer as part of your domestic water supply?

We do, and ice cubes made in our fridge's ice maker will precipitate out calcium carbonate when they melt - even though there is an in-line filter/carbon block between the neutralizer and the ice maker.

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

Yeah but... he's been kegging for a few years and this hasn't happened until now. I could be wrong, but I doubt that NYC just started adding an acid neutralizer to their water in the past couple of months.

 

[mashdar]

What kind of beer?

Tartaric acid in wine precipitates like this, but unless you're adding an acid blend, that wouldn't make sense.