Metallic taste from Intertap

[dsaavedra]

I just set up my keezer with 4 brand new stainless steel Intertap flow control faucets, with the stainless steel shank and tailpiece also from Intertap. I currently have 2 beers on tap, which I previously had on tap on my picnic tap setup - no metallic taste there so I know it is not due to anything in the brewing process.

I've only had the taps set up for 3 days so I haven't had a whole lot of time to experiment with pouring from them (you can only handle so many "test pours" in one sitting ) but what I'm experiencing seems to be a big spurt of foam on the first pour (I'm guessing because the faucet is warm) and a metallic, astringent taste in the beer. This seems to go away on the second pour, plus I've adjusted the flow control to get less foam on the pour.

What I'm wondering is if this can be caused by the Intertap faucets? They are supposedly all stainless steel so I wouldn't think they would impart any metallic flavor. Has anyone experience this before?

I have a few working theories:

1. Metallic taste is from the few ounces of beer sitting in faucets for an extended time - maybe the faucets just need to "break in"... I didn't do much in the way of cleaning them initially aside from running about a gallon of watered down starsan through each so its possible there could be some manufacturing residue inside.

2. The excessive foaming is from the faucets being warm (I also noticed the inside of the faucets are a little rough, not perfectly smooth like I would have expected). Since the foam is mostly CO2, which can have a metallic bite, I may be experiencing that. I don't think this is the case though as the metallic taste is not like any carbonic bite I've experienced, it states like straight up loose change but not super intense.

3. My CO2 tank feel like its close to being empty. Can the CO2 towards the end of the tank impart a metallic taste for some weird reason?

4. I'm just overthinking it and making all this up because I tend to obsess and worry over things.

Any ideas or similar experiences? Here are a few details on my setup:

• Keezer set to 37°F with fan mounted on inside of lid blowing straight down to circulate air, 1" foam insulation around the wood collar
  
• Kegs were new when I bought them but have had a couple batches run through them
• ~4 feet of 3/16" Bevlex vinyl tubing that I've been using without issue with my picnic tap setup
• 12 psi on the regulator
  
• Stainless steel tailpieces, shanks, and faucets.

 

[singybrue]

1. Starsan is not a cleaner, so probably some leftover manufacturing residues
2. excess foaming is due to the lines and tap warming, as well as too short of lines. I switched over to flow control intertaps in the hopes of running short lines, but it didn't work. I still had to run 10'-12' lines in order to pour a decent pint.
3. No idea
4. yes

Try dumping the 1st 4oz or so and see if you have better results.
(That's why I tried to switch to flow controls and short lines, I don't like dumping a 1/4 pint of beer)

 

[brew703]

Funny this post pops up.

I've had my keezer up and running since November. Use two SS Intertap Flow controls. Have had zero issues until recently. I run 12-15' of Bev Seal Ultra.

Last night I poured a pint and it was a lot of foam (about half glass). It's never happened before and come to think of it there was a little bit of a metallic taste. I think this tap had sat for 24-48 hrs since I last poured a pint.

Keezer is set at 35 with a 3 degree differential. 10 PSI. Not sure if this tap sitting for two days had anything to do with the metallic taste or foam issues.

I also adjusted the flow control but it didn't really help.

I'll have to check this out tonight and see if there is still any foam issues or metallic taste.

 

[myndflyte]

I think this tap had sat for 24-48 hrs since I last poured a pint.

I also have SS Intertap faucets (not flow control) but my taps will sit usually 5 days without being poured. The first pour will have a little more foam, maybe like 1/4 of the glass, but I'm just attributing that to the beer sitting in the line for so long. I don't get any noticeable metallic taste though. Usually any other pours after that are fine. I used to pull a small amount to flush the lines with fresh beer, dump it and then fill my glass but I've stopped doing that.

 

[brew703]

I also have SS Intertap faucets (not flow control) but my taps will sit usually 5 days without being poured. The first pour will have a little more foam, maybe like 1/4 of the glass, but I'm just attributing that to the beer sitting in the line for so long. I don't get any noticeable metallic taste though. Usually any other pours after that are fine. I used to pull a small amount to flush the lines with fresh beer, dump it and then fill my glass but I've stopped doing that.

I used to dump the first 1/4 cup but also stopped doing it. I'll have to try that again tonight and see how that works.

 

[pshankstar]

I would recommend cleaning them, for I would think there would be some residual stuff in there. Take a keg and put some PBW or Oxi-clean free solution and run it through the faucet for a few minutes. Then rinse out the keg really well and put some clean hot water in the keg and push that through the faucets. Lastly sanitizer through the faucets. This would take care of the metallic taste you are getting.

I recently had some issues with foaming with my one faucet with a NEIPA. What I found was something (probably hop particle) was in the faucet. I took it off the shank and all apart, flushed some hot water through it and put it back on. The foaming has reduced quite a bit. I think there may also be some debris in the poppet of the keg, so that might be part of the foaming issue. Something to think about with the foaming portion.

I am very happy with my Intertap SS FC Faucets, SS Shanks and SS Tail Pieces. I hope this helps and good luck!

 

[dsaavedra]

Okay, following some of these suggestions I filled an empty keg with hot oxyclean solution and ran a gallon through each tap, making sure to flip the flow control lever through its whole rotation and open and close the tap multiple times during the pour, to make sure the cleaner got in all the moving parts. Then I rinsed the keg really well, filled it with cold water, and ran a gallon of cold water through each tap, working the flow control and tap handle again. While the taps were still cold from the cold water I poured a pint with the flow control set to about 50%, one spurt of foam at first as the cold beer hit the tap which was only the temp of my cold water, but other than that it poured fine. About 3 fingers of foam on the pint. I could see condensation on the tap so I was sure it was cold now so I poured a half pint in another glass and it was so much smoother, just a thin cap of foam.

So I think I can attribute the foam issue to the taps just not being cold enough (previously I was only pouring little 4 oz samples so that probably wasn't enough to cool the taps down)

No metallic taste in this pint either, though I usually noted the metallic taste in the first pour which included beer that had been sitting in the tap for ~24hrs, so the real test will be the first pour tomorrow night.

At any rate, I'm feeling good at having run cleaner through all the taps and figuring out the foaming issue was just warm taps. I'll update tomorrow to see if the metallic taste persists.

 

[augiedoggy]

I also have SS Intertap faucets (not flow control) but my taps will sit usually 5 days without being poured. The first pour will have a little more foam, maybe like 1/4 of the glass, but I'm just attributing that to the beer sitting in the line for so long. I don't get any noticeable metallic taste though. Usually any other pours after that are fine. I used to pull a small amount to flush the lines with fresh beer, dump it and then fill my glass but I've stopped doing that.

same here.

 

[augiedoggy]

3. My CO2 tank feel like its close to being empty. Can the CO2 towards the end of the tank impart a metallic taste for some weird reason?

4. I'm just overthinking it and making all this up because I tend to obsess and worry over things.

Any ideas or similar experiences? Here are a few details on my setup:

• Keezer set to 37°F with fan mounted on inside of lid blowing straight down to circulate air, 1" foam insulation around the wood collar
  
• Kegs were new when I bought them but have had a couple batches run through them
• ~4 feet of 3/16" Bevlex vinyl tubing that I've been using without issue with my picnic tap setup
• 12 psi on the regulator
  
• Stainless steel tailpieces, shanks, and faucets.

is your co2 tank a welding tank or did you have it filled or exchanged at a place that does welding gas fills without specific that its for food grade use? Praxair is one of my customers and I asked them about this.
At some places it doesnt matter and some places have separate for dood grade vs non food grade gas and equipment and a used tank that was used for welding equipment could have oil or other contaminates in it.

I have 4-5 ft of 3/16 line on my flow control intertaps and replaced the line with 11 ft when I learned the many of the calculators were way off and thats what I needed... MUCH BETTER pours now.

 

[dsaavedra]

Okay so it's been 24 hrs since I pulled a pint. First pint pulled tonight had 1 spurt of foam but otherwise poured nicely, and no metallic tastes. Second pint was a near perfect pour and again, no metallic taste. So I think running the hot oxyclean through each tap cleared up the metallic issue, and the foam issue was due to warm taps

 

[redarmy990]

I also have intertaps with flow control, I have 5 ft of tubing to my taps, the tubing is Eagle KEG 350Brew ulta, from Amazon.
The kegerator also has a tubing from the re circulation fan that goes up to the top of the tap tower.

I have never had issues with foam on the short lines, I get an intial spurt of foam on first pour when not used a few days, but everything else has been great.

Maybe you could run hosing into your tower to keep the tower cold.