Kegging seems to be killing my beer.

[Cazamodo]

The last couple of beers ive had have tasted great out of the fermentor, although not carbed. But after a couple of weeks carbing n the keg the taste is now thin and not great at all!

I dont think its my sanitation is too bad, I clean the keg, starsan it and then fill it onto the foam. Am i leaving too much starsan inside?

I know the beers going to condition in the keg, and I'm hoping I will get the great wheat beer flavour back that I began with!

 

[Jaybird]

Are you taking the keg apart and cleaning the dip tube? running star san through the bleed off valve? I have seen a bunch of people not clean their kegs right and get loads of off flavors from it.
Moving on. What temp are you carbing at? Serving at? drinking at?
Cheers
Jay

 

[Cazamodo]

Yea I usually only run cleaner through but since I was worried about it I took the whole lot apart and cleaned everything even down to the poppets lol.
I carb at around 10C mainly as its the temp of where my kegs are atm, and I set it to around 3-4 psi and wait a couple of weeks for it to carb. Then serve around 1-3C. From my keggarator.

 

[eobie]

3-4 psi WAY to low for 10C (50F). You should be 14-16 psi at those temps.

 

[Jaybird]

3-4 psi WAY to low for 10C (50F). You should be 14-16 psi at those temps.

Ohh yeah I will second that for sure.. really if you want to carb at 3-4 psi you need to be almost at freezing and even then around 7-8 psi.
Cheers
Jay

 

[Cazamodo]

Ill up my pressure and may aswell put the kegs in the keggorator at serving temp to carb then.

Strill not not sure why my wheat beer has gone from thick and fruity to thin and acidy lol.

 

[masonsjax]

Are you shaking it to force carb? You could be tasting carbonic acid. If so, set your serving pressure and taste again in a couple weeks.

 

[Cazamodo]

I usually just ser it and forget it rather than shake it. I'm gonna lower the temp and up the gas and check back in a couple of weeks!

 

[brewingmeister]

3-4 psi WAY to low for 10C (50F). You should be 14-16 psi at those temps.

+1 and thanks for converting the temp.

Why were these not in the rator in the first place? not enough room? If you have room definitely put them in the fridge, I know my rator runs way less when full. It runs almost constantly when the keg is empty.

 

[Cazamodo]

Just ease of use really I ferment my beer outside and chuck in the keg and leave it. There's nothing really stopping it going styraight in so I yhink from now on that's what ill do!

 

[janivar123]

1-3C~34-38F serving temp dont leave much room for taste
I rarely drink even lager below 10C~50F(ok ok I might seve some lagers at higher temps then recomended, but yours seem werry low)

 

[l3asturd]

We like cold beer in America! Haha kidding janivar. I tend to serve at around 40F, but lower it for Belgian beers and wheat beers.

I know this may sound dumb, but I would maybe bottle condition half of your next batch then do a taste test to see if you can tell, trying not to disturb the bottle yeast. If they're the same taste then it would seem that is the designed taste of the beer. If the kegged is worse then you could start troubleshooting that process in depth.

You could just buy some Coopers Carb Drops and bottle just a few bottles instead of half your batch. That would be the easiest way.

 

[shoreman]

Do you have a cellar? Just serve it at cellar temps take the keg out of the fridge