My kegged beer tastes stale!

[Morrey]

I keg my beers and consider sanitation critical. I clean my beer lines every few weeks with a recirc pump, beer line cleaner, rinse, starsan, rinse. Beer in question is a Marzen I brewed in Sep and have a bit left in a ball lock corny kept constant 35F, CO2 psi constant.

Wife turns her nose up and says this beer is stale. For the life of me I cannot detect any off flavors. Clean glass nothing wrong to me.

The only thing I can figure she is taking antibiotics for a sinus infection. Would sinus issues or antibiotics make someone feel a beer is "stale"? She insists the beer has an off flavor but I cannot taste anything wrong.

 

[Gish]

By stale dose it have the cardboard taste? Are you purging your kegs with CO2 before you fill them? Dose your wife taste the beer at kegging and if so dose she like it?

 

[Morrey]

I have not actually purged the keg with CO2 prior to filling with beer, but that is a good suggestion. I do purge the headspace several times once filled so a layer of CO2 fills the keg.

When the beer was kegged, she made no comment and to me it still tastes the same as it did...possibly better due to conditioning. She has since developed a sinus infection so I have to think that is a big factor.

 

[GPP33]

Since aroma is a major player in your perception of taste I think you're probably right.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Never trust a person with a sinus infection. I should know, I had one for about 5 years. Ended up in prison.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Seriously though. Get someone else to taste it, someone who isn't sensually compromised.

 

[Gish]

What I was getting at is you maybe staling the beer when you are kegging. I don't think you have an infection two different problems.

 

[day_trippr]

If the OP has been kegging for some time and this is the first brew his Spousal Unit has found an issue, the simplest answer isn't process related...

Cheers!