Ripbeer
Member
I kegged up a very nice English IPA last week. Have been primarily bottling for the last 5 years, but decided to keg this batch. I had an old tank of CO2 I got from a friend, probably 10 years old.
After contacting the local HBS folks and researching a bit on the net it seemed the consensus was that CO2 will not go "bad" and it would be safe to use. I tried a sample after racking into the corni-kega and was very happy with the results. Well after about 4 hours of forced carb at 13 psi I decided to try the brew and see how it was coming along. Immediately I noticed an off flavor. The next day I tried again, the carbonation was good but same off note. Had a friend try the beer as well and he agreed.
After trying to figure out the flavor I am thinking it tastes like rubber - possibly gasket or o-ring. It may be true that the CO2 will still be CO2 in its molecular form, wondering if something in contact with the CO2 was degraded over time imparting this aweful after taste. Any thoughts would be welcome.
After contacting the local HBS folks and researching a bit on the net it seemed the consensus was that CO2 will not go "bad" and it would be safe to use. I tried a sample after racking into the corni-kega and was very happy with the results. Well after about 4 hours of forced carb at 13 psi I decided to try the brew and see how it was coming along. Immediately I noticed an off flavor. The next day I tried again, the carbonation was good but same off note. Had a friend try the beer as well and he agreed.
After trying to figure out the flavor I am thinking it tastes like rubber - possibly gasket or o-ring. It may be true that the CO2 will still be CO2 in its molecular form, wondering if something in contact with the CO2 was degraded over time imparting this aweful after taste. Any thoughts would be welcome.