Bad Kegs???

johnnyik · Post by **johnnyik** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 11:35 am

OK, so kegging now for a little over a year and my keg beer is starting to taste really bad...almost metallic like. Recent beers included a Scottish 60/- and double decocted Munich dunkel. The dunkel has only been in the keg for around a month and the scottish less than 2 weeks. They both tasted good from secondary to keg and bad after carbonating. The inside of the now empty scottish keg looks almost copper in color. That was after a 30 minute soak with PBW and rinse. What gives??? Are my kegs going bad or something??

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 4:57 pm

You haven't done an extended bleaching or anything have you? The stainless shoudn't change color. You might try some caustic and repassivate the keg. Other than that I don't know what would cause it.

johnnyik · Post by **johnnyik** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:37 pm

No chlorine has touched these kegs. What type of caustic should I use? Just bought Bar Keepers Friend, is that safe to use on the inside?

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 4:06 pm

I haven't ever tried BKF so I'm not sure about using it inside. Is there anything on the label about food safe or rinsing?
Five Star makes a caustic. I don't see it at the homebrew shops. It might not be avaliable to consumers. I'll have to look around to see if there's anything comparable to use. I wouldn't mind doing my kettles.

DrPaulsen · Post by **DrPaulsen** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:17 pm

BKF is safe to use on the inside. I've used it extensively whenever I get a rust spot and need to "reset" the stainless. It does a great job of cutting through everything I've encountered. Once you scrub it with BKF, just give it a quick rinse and the passive oxide layer that makes it "stainless" (chromium oxide?) should form instantly.

By the way, have you looked at the interior of your kegs under different lighting conditions? I've noticed the light source can drastically change the perceived color of polished stainless.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:25 pm

I do not think that caustic is available to the consumer as it I believe it has a hazmat rating.

With all that has been said here, the only thing I would add is that you should disassemble the entire keg and use PBW and star san on disassembled posts. As well as interior in addition to the BKF.

johnnyik · Post by **johnnyik** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:45 pm

Update. Just did a 24 hour soak with starsan followed by a scrub (good thing my arms are skinny!) Inside of kegs looks much better. Guess I'll put a better effort into keeping the kegs cleaner. Also going to start spraying the gas posts with starsan prior to carbonation. Thanks for all the help!

johnnyik · Post by **johnnyik** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:46 pm

Update. Just did a 24 hour soak with starsan followed by a scrub (good thing my arms are skinny!) Inside of kegs looks much better. Guess I'll put a better effort into keeping the kegs cleaner. Also going to start spraying the gas posts with starsan prior to carbonation. Thanks for all the help!

bkanderson · Post by **bkanderson** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 12:53 pm

The only other thing that might cause off flavors or metallic taste is if the pressure relief valve on your keg was replaced with a steel chrome plated key ring. If you use star san, it will eat that ring and produce off-flavors. Not sure if that’s the case, but thought I would through it out there.

Post by **JimPotts** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 1:01 pm

Interesting. Does the beer normally touch the relief valve? Or is the little bit that might slosh on it enough to flavor a batch?

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 12:53 PM, bkanderson <brew-tech@crbeernuts.org (brew-tech@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

The only other thing that might cause off flavors or metallic taste is if the pressure relief valve on your keg was replaced with a steel chrome plated key ring. If you use star san, it will eat that ring and produce off-flavors. Not sure if that’s the case, but thought I would through it out there.

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bkanderson · Post by **bkanderson** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 1:11 pm

I would guess it depends on how you carbonate your beer. I do the shake method so it comes in contact with the relief valve a lot. If you just put 10-15 PSI on and let it sit, I doubt it would be a problem. Might be during sanitization, like if you you shake the keg and the residue drips down and sticks to the sides when you pour out the sanitizer. These are all just hypothetical situations. I know I had a problem with the relief value, it was mostly corroded away and once I changed it out, no more off flavors. I have no clue if that was the true issue or not.

Post by **JimPotts** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 1:24 pm

Makes sense. I didn't think about shaking during force-carb, which I do too when I'm impatient.

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 1:11 PM, bkanderson <brew-tech@crbeernuts.org (brew-tech@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

I would guess it depends on how you carbonate your beer. I do the shake method so it comes in contact with the relief valve a lot. If you just put 10-15 PSI on and let it sit, I doubt it would be a problem. Might be during sanitization, like if you you shake the keg and the residue drips down and sticks to the sides when you pour out the sanitizer. These are all just hypothetical situations. I know I had a problem with the relief value, it was mostly corroded away and once I changed it out, no more off flavors. I have no clue if that was the true issue or not.

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