sideshow_ben
Well-Known Member
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,
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,