Truby beer at Keg EoL?

[Paulgs3]

I'm killing off two kegs, both were sloppy siphons and had a good amount of trub that get sucked into the keg. The plan was to let it cold crash and draw off a few mugs (self consumption) and let it clear up.

It did.

Until the end of the keg. The kegs are almost empty and the beer coming out of them is cloudier then all holy hell and taste like the trub samples you get from taking SG reading out of the primary. This is from beer that is two months old, cold crashed, and up to this point has been crystal clear.

Its not infected, is it? There is over 5.0 abv in both... cant be infected?!

I'm assuming that somehow, when I was carbing all the trub went up?! instead of down?! I have no other way to explain whats going on, but it tastes very.... trubby.

What happened?

 

[bump]

That's odd. I had the same thing happen to me yesterday. I brewed a cream ale in June and used gelatin in the keg to clear the beer. It worked great and I had ultra clear beer. It's been in the kegerator ever since.

Last night I decided to bottle the rest of the keg as I am going to submit it for a competition. I bottles 18 beers with my beer gun and the last partial bottle I filled was this ultra cloudy, yeasty looking mess. It really puzzled me as I figured anything floating around would have settled and been sucked up in the first couple of pints I poured from the keg....

Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[JKoravos]

Happens on every keg. Once the liquid level gets to the curved part on the bottom of the keg, the sediment starts getting picked up and mixed in with the clear beer. The last couple of pints are usually anywhere from cloudy to slurry-like, depending on how much stuff settled out.

 

[Paulgs3]

Happens on every keg. Once the liquid level gets to the curved part on the bottom of the keg, the sediment starts getting picked up and mixed in with the clear beer. The last couple of pints are usually anywhere from cloudy to slurry-like, depending on how much stuff settled out.

I've never had it happen to me before and I've kegged probably close to 50 batches so far. *BUT* this was the first time I transferred directly from my primary into a keg, so there was a lot more to settle out than normal which makes sense in what you are saying. I was trying to cold crash in the keg to cut down on cleaning instead of using my glass carboy.

I'm going back to using the carboy.

 

[douglasbarbin]

I am experiencing a similar problem, only I just carbed this keg and the first couple pints are chock-full of trub. Almost makes me not want to drink the beer. Almost. I'm actually considering racking it out of the keg, letting it sit in a carboy for a few hours to settle out some, rinsing out and sanitizing the keg, and then racking it back into the keg. Anybody every do this before? Any reason why it wouldn't work?

 

[bump]

I am experiencing a similar problem, only I just carbed this keg and the first couple pints are chock-full of trub. Almost makes me not want to drink the beer. Almost. I'm actually considering racking it out of the keg, letting it sit in a carboy for a few hours to settle out some, rinsing out and sanitizing the keg, and then racking it back into the keg. Anybody every do this before? Any reason why it wouldn't work?

That is normal in my experience. Usually when I rack from primary to a keg and carb in the fridge, the first couple of pints are cloudy and then it clears up for the rest of the keg.

Let it settle for awhile and if doesn't get better then I suppose you could rack back to a carboy as you suggested, but I don't think you'll have to.

 

[JKoravos]

I've never had it happen to me before and I've kegged probably close to 50 batches so far. *BUT* this was the first time I transferred directly from my primary into a keg, so there was a lot more to settle out than normal which makes sense in what you are saying. I was trying to cold crash in the keg to cut down on cleaning instead of using my glass carboy.

I'm going back to using the carboy.

Aha. Yeah, if you go to secondary for a while it drastically reduces the effect. I'm still surprised you usually don't see this at all. Do you chill it in secondary until it's bright?

 

[JasontheBeaver]

You guys have preempted my last question before kegging my first batch. That is, if we're going directly from primary to keg, what happens to the sediment that usually ends up in the bottom of the secondary? I've got my answer, it ends up in the bottom of your keg where it gets sucked up (or I should say, pushed out) through the dip tube and into your first couple pours.

Can't wait to hear what others have to say soon.

 

[Paulgs3]

Aha. Yeah, if you go to secondary for a while it drastically reduces the effect. I'm still surprised you usually don't see this at all. Do you chill it in secondary until it's bright?

Yes, I usually wait until it is crystal clear. Takes around a week, I've let a few go longer. I've been concerned about oxidation which is another reason why I tried going directly into the keg.

I also force carb so any remaining "stuff" that might show up after that gets mixed up pretty well at that point.

 

[douglasbarbin]

Well, I'm about halfway through this keg, and still getting floaties, although not as much as before. Looks like this will be the first and last time I skip secondary. There is just too much stuff floating around in primary that gets stirred up when I siphon, so the extra time in secondary lets a lot of that junk fall out. Maybe in the future I will try gelatin or something, but for now, I'm going to go back to secondary for clearing.

 

[day_trippr]

I always rack to a secondary fermenter, where I do my dry hopping, etc, and end secondary with 3-4 days of crash cooling to sink everything fast to the bottom before I keg. But you could do all of that in one, "primary" fermenter.

The crash cooling really does clear the heck out of the brew - and you could probably do that just as well even if you don't rack to a secondary. And when I rack to the keg I put a piece of material cut from a nylon hop pellet bag (pretty much the same tight mesh as a paint strainer) over the end of my autosiphon tip so I don't draw up all that crashed yeast/trub/hop pellets into the keg.

When I have a keg kick there's barely a coating of yeast/trub on the bottom, and the first draw is as clean as the last...

Cheers!

 

[Paulgs3]

Well, I'm about halfway through this keg, and still getting floaties, although not as much as before. Looks like this will be the first and last time I skip secondary. There is just too much stuff floating around in primary that gets stirred up when I siphon, so the extra time in secondary lets a lot of that junk fall out. Maybe in the future I will try gelatin or something, but for now, I'm going to go back to secondary for clearing.

Same. The extra step really makes a big difference, no more cutting corners for me.

 

[krenshaw]

as long as you are careful when racking from your primary into the keg, you can keep the sediment pretty minimal.. just start siphoning from the middle of the primary, then move it down as you are empty and stop just short of the cake

 

[JasontheBeaver]

I am going to rack to keg for the first time in a few weeks and will use my siphon pump that draws from about an inch off the bottom of the vessel. We use this for racking wine and it works well. We'll see how it works for beer. I guess it depends on how thick the yeast cake is.