I brewed a wild ale style sour with Brett as well as the dregs from a Prairie sour before I deployed to Afghanistan last March. The beer has been working its magic for almost a year now, and I'll be home after a 1 year deployment in early April. This is the first sour I've brewed so I have a few questions regarding packaging the beer upon my return. The plan is to age the beer on some type of fruit (I'm thinking maybe apricots) for a couple months after I get home but then I was thinking about kegging the beer versus bottling it. My question is, can this be done without the risk of contaminating future batches? I have separate equipment for sours BUT only one kegerator. Do I not risk it and just bottle it or is there a way it can be sterilized?
Kegging a Sour?
- Thread starter Hayden80
- Start date
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You can keg the sour. Try to avoid spilling the beer inside the kegerator -- the bugs shouldn't get into the other kegs, but I guess maybe they could infect your tubing if you leave them flailing around unattached to a keg...maybe? That said, if you plan to run a clean beer through the same line after the sour you'll need to give the line a thorough cleaning and sanitizing; you might even need to replace any plastic parts -- tubing, disconnects, keg o-rings, etc. The keg, shank, and faucet can all be sanitized with a proper line cleaner and sanitizer; the plastic/porous parts could harbor bugs. Or just dedicate the line to sours and call it a day!
I'm sure someone out there does just fine with BLC and StarSan, but I usually tend toward moderate OCD when it comes to sanitation.
I'm sure someone out there does just fine with BLC and StarSan, but I usually tend toward moderate OCD when it comes to sanitation.
Thanks for the response. I, too, am VERY OCD when it comes to sanitization which is why I am so hesitant to try this. I figured someone here would have an answer. I DO have a keg dedicated to sours. I mean I do now at least.
Aaron Beers
Well-Known Member
Seeing as it takes months to sour a beer, I don't think any small amount of yeast living in your beer line is going to have enough time working on your subsequent non-sour beer to make a noticeable difference.
That being said... for beers that are going to leave behind remnants I don't want in most of my other beers, I just use a picnic tap. I have to open the fridge to get a glass instead of pouring off a tap on a kegerator, but there are no worries about cross contamination. I use the tap for chile beers as well to avoid making one of the lines in my kegerator spicy.
That being said... for beers that are going to leave behind remnants I don't want in most of my other beers, I just use a picnic tap. I have to open the fridge to get a glass instead of pouring off a tap on a kegerator, but there are no worries about cross contamination. I use the tap for chile beers as well to avoid making one of the lines in my kegerator spicy.
