infection in kegs

[conpewter]

I've been discouraged from brewing lately, and haven't made or drank much at all. The beers I make are pretty darn good when I put them in the keg, do fine for a month or so, then they start to go off... it is a hard flavor to figure out, it's not nasty, but I don't want to finish a pint either. This happens to all my kegs, probably because I have 2 picnic taps in the fridge that I swap between kegs. I'm basically the only one that drinks my beer (besides what I bottle from the tap and give to others) so the kegs don't get drained very quickly. At first it only seemed to show up in my lighter beers, but now pretty much every keg in the fridge has the distinctive flavor.

As for what to do. I'm planning on bottle conditioning my next brew (IPA) it is about done dry hopping. I haven't bottled in a log time so I think I may get a bottling bucket since my old one is probably pretty scratched up, or I'll just boil some water in my boil kettle to sanitize, drain and then siphon into that to use as my bottling "bucket" (bottom drain e-keggle).

After that I will finish my taps going to the kitchen, using new lines and disconnects, then I'll only put freshly cleaned and sanitized kegs on those lines, and dump the rest, toss out the picnic taps and their disconnects (Or can I boil them?) Should I try to sanitize the kegs with boiled water as well? Bleach?

I may pick up tubing to do a T-siphon and get rid of my auto-siphon (2nd time doing that...) as it can't be heat sanitized. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[KhellendrosXS]

You can dis-assemble the disconnects using a flat head screwdriver so you might be able to salvage them.

 

[ohad]

how can you know it's an infection?
And why are the kegs suspicious, and not the fermenters?
can it be something else? maybe some bad flavors from yeast or water that become noticeable only after the beer cleans up for a while ?
the bottling experiment will help.

I agree you should boil everything you can. All other stuff should be disassembled and soaked in a high concentration sanitizer for a while.
I don't see why you find it necessary to throw stuff away (except lines maybe)

Hope you'll figure it out.

A safe option would be to throw away your entire brewery and build a better one

 

[malkore]

did it happen after you changed out CO2 cylinders? You might have gotten a tank that was rusted or 'gunked up' inside and its the gas that's funking up your beers.

 

[conpewter]

Hmm could be the Co2, not sure when I last changed the tank, a long time ago (steel 20 pounder). I believe it to be an infection because any beer that I've made over the last year that went into a keg went off in a month or two, the ones still in fermenters or bottled did not go off... I have several beers in secondary that were brewed at various times over the year and are still aging as they are styles that need it, they are fine.

The first beer I brewed about 3 years ago got a bad infection (My own stupid mistakes), a year or so later I infected another batch by reusing some equipment, or maybe the same stuff in the air. The stuff I'm currently tasting is similar to that, and seems to get undrinkable if stored warm for a month or two. In the fridge it is very slow at going bad.

What do you guys think of the "bottle from boil kettle" idea? Heat sanitized at least.

The only reason I want to throw away tubing and the auto-siphon is because I can't heat sanitize it, and scratches could harbor bacteria where a sanitizer can't get to it. Thanks for the feedback guys

 

[Oly]

Bummer about the off-taste. Hope you figure it out.

"What do you guys think of the "bottle from boil kettle" idea? Heat sanitized at least."

When I'm bottling just 1 gal leftover after kegging, I bottle from my sanitized boil kettle 'cause my bottling bucket is usually full of sanitizer. As long as it's sanitized, you should be fine.