Kegs going stale pretty quickly

[sideshow_ben]

I've been legging for a few years now, without losing any batches before unexpected them to be last their primes. But the last few months, I've been losing beers much more quickly. I'm not sure if it's a problem with my cleaning, system, or just the nature of the beers. An ESB went bad after 6 weeks, a Belgian Wit after 7-8 weeks and a French Saison after 4. The beers lost all their hop flavor, most aroma, and just tasted flat. But not contaminated or infected/spoiled. The main difference of late is that I've been cleaning with 1-step instead of PBW. Other than that, I soak the kegs in cleaner for 1-3 days, rinse thoroughly, soak in SanStar for 30 min, then empty, dry for up to a day, close them up with a tiny bit of lube. I always flush the air out with CO2 after filling, cool them to 45F, then inject CO2 through the "out" tube while swirling to force carb. I clean and sanitize the ball lock and posts before carbing. I clean and sanitize all my locks, tubes and taps, as well as the posts before hookup.

I figure culprits are either (a) using 1-step instead of PBW, (b) something is bad with my CO2 and I should get a new bottle instead of refilling the one I have, or (c) these were all beers with short shelf-lives and I just got the shorter end of those time periods.

Thoughts or advice,

 

[Yooper]

I think it's somewhere in "none of the above". Instead of sanitizing before you fill, emptying and letting it dry and waiting, try sanitizing before filling. You don't need 30 minutes with star-san- one minute is fine, and fill while still wet.

The other thing I question is the force carbing technique. By burst carbing, I wonder if there is a lot of purging going on, causing alot of the hops flavor and aroma to "blow off" during the purging as well. I'm careful with dryhopped beers to not purge more than a couple of times when filling the keg, as to not lose those delicate aromatics.

 

[sideshow_ben]

When I purge, I put gas into the gas-in at about 10 psi, open the valve to release it, and repeat 2-3x. Then to force carb, I inject gas down the liquid line to come up from the bottom, swirling the keg to keep gas going into solution. I do not purge any air during or after this process. Still, do you think this may be "scrubbing" the flavor/aroma out of the beer, versus force carbing through the gas valve by rolling the keg on its side?

 

[Yooper]

When I purge, I put gas into the gas-in at about 10 psi, open the valve to release it, and repeat 2-3x. Then to force carb, I inject gas down the liquid line to come up from the bottom, swirling the keg to keep gas going into solution. I do not purge any air during or after this process. Still, do you think this may be "scrubbing" the flavor/aroma out of the beer, versus force carbing through the gas valve by rolling the keg on its side?

I don't know. I'm also thinking about how you described the beer- the "flat" finish makes me consider oxidation as a possibility as well.

I've never done the gas into the beer post and shaking/swirling so I don't know the effects that could have. I have read that it could affect head retention due to the disruptions of proteins, but I don't know if that's even a fact or one of those wives tales, so I don't know of how it would or could affect the stability of the beer in the long term. (staling reactions).

 

[sideshow_ben]

Yooper, I think that the problem may very well be oxidization. I'm very careful about this throughout all my processes, but I realize that a few months ago I went to a new supplier for CO2 when I ran out. Maybe their gas was contaminated and I should get a new batch...

 

[forstmeister]

I've been kegging for a couple years and have never had a keg go bad on me. I clean them by filling with sanitizer solution once they empty and running the solution through the tap to clean the lines too.

Then I just leave the keg with a small amount of sanitized water in it stored upside down to keep the seals wet.

When I fill a keg I sanitize, then fill, then purge with CO2 through the in post a few times. Then I put the keg in the fridge and set it at serving pressure and leave it for 2 weeks. At 3 weeks its usually perfect but drinkable at 2. Once I start to drink it they only last a few weeks to a month before its gone.

 

[grathan]

Could try a less violent force carb.