beer soured, new beer line needed?

[bruin_ale]

I've got a stout on tap that has picked up a noticeable sourness in the 3 months it's been on tap - has a clean tartness that clearly shouldn't be there. None of my other beers have developed this, so I'm pretty sure it's isolated to this keg. Should I be paranoid about infection spreading backwards from the beer line into the next keg I put on this tap now that this beer has been in it?

Anyways, the plan is to boil the gaskets/o-rings from the keg for 15 minutes and to replace the beer line.

What's your take? Is that overkill, just right, or not enough and I forgot something else I need to do?

My other thought was to just make it a dedicated sour tap - but I don't have anything sour to put online at the moment.

 

[zacjack]

new beer line = <$5, all new o-rings - $3.99 from northern brewer.

I would just spend the $9 and replace everything.

 

[rjsnau]

I just listed to a show about sour beers and they recommended using bleach as it will kill more than just starsan. You would want to rinse well but that should kill everything.

Me personally I would spend the $9 and replace everything and then soak anything I am not replacing in bleach for 15 minutes, rinse, boil and then starsan but I am a bit anal.

 

[JRems]

In this case I would replace all the soft parts. I would even rinse the keg with bleach. It's not a problem unless the bleach is left in the keg for a long time.

 

[thargrav]

I've got a stout on tap that has picked up a noticeable sourness in the 3 months it's been on tap - has a clean tartness that clearly shouldn't be there. None of my other beers have developed this, so I'm pretty sure it's isolated to this keg. Should I be paranoid about infection spreading backwards from the beer line into the next keg I put on this tap now that this beer has been in it?

Anyways, the plan is to boil the gaskets/o-rings from the keg for 15 minutes and to replace the beer line.

What's your take? Is that overkill, just right, or not enough and I forgot something else I need to do?

My other thought was to just make it a dedicated sour tap - but I don't have anything sour to put online at the moment.

You have to clean & sanitize or replace everything that came in contact with beer.

Years a go I had a keg that would turn any beer I put into it sour. I tried boiling water & StarSan and I even kept StarSan in the keg for a week once. I replaced the O-rings, closure gaskets and poppet valves and the infection still came back.

I finally killed the infection by filling the keg with boiling hot water, adding a little bit of Dawn dish detergent, then adding bleach. After I closed the lid I hit it with CO2 to seal everything then I turned the keg over & let it sit. The infection went away and I still use the keg today.

Bleach can kill just about anything.

 

[Zen_Brew]

Probably easiest to replace the soft parts as others are suggesting.

One other thought. Where is your carbonation at? If you drive the carbonation up to high in a beer you will also impart a sharp, sour note from the carbonic acid. Just thought I'd throw that out there as something else to look at.

 

[midfielder5]

I would dedicate that keg for sour beers to be safe... i see others had better luck getting rid of it (post above).

and replace the beer line.

I kegged a Brett beer and it destroyed my line and the keg. If I want a sour beer, I just toss it in this sour keg. Seriously. I did not want a sour watermelon hefe, but it is good!! I figured it out later.
Russian River Brew Co marks & segregates their kegs, so I followed their lead. But I do have 10 kegs.

 

[dwarven_stout]

I just listed to a show about sour beers and they recommended using bleach as it will kill more than just starsan.

Did these guys have a biochem background, or were they just spitballin'?


To the OP: I have 6 kegs and two tap. I usually have 1 and sometimes 2 sour and/or brett beers on tap at a time. There was one particular time that I didn't clean the tap well when switching kegs and I ended up with a 12-pack of brett saison (actually a delicious mistake). Since then, I just run some hot oxyclean followed by starsan through the lines when I'm cleaning the keg, and I've had no more trouble. I don't segregate my kegs into wild/clean beers, and I use the same taps for both beers. As always, proper sanitation is key.

 

[bruin_ale]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
It's definitely sour - I can tell the difference between carbonic and sour. This is a lemony sourness that is getting stronger as time goes on, kind of pleasant with the roasted grain right now but eventually it's going to be too strong to be enjoyable and I don't want this going to other beers I may put in the keg or on the line.

Dwarven, interesting.. I've been getting into the sour thing but haven't brewed one yet. I've got separate buckets and 5G carboys I was planning to use but hadn't figured out what to do for serving. I was thinking about just using a picnic tap to prevent the cross-contamination. How long do your beers stay on tap? Maybe with the cold of your keezer the clean beers don't get enough time to pick up the funk/sourness? This particular beer has been on tap since December and I only started noticing the sourness about 3 weeks ago.

BTW, I have both ball locks and pinlocks - I mostly use ball-locks so I was thnking I'd just use the pin-locks for sours to make it easy to differentiate which kegs are "clean" and what are "wild/sour".

 

[dwarven_stout]

Dwarven, interesting.. I've been getting into the sour thing but haven't brewed one yet. I've got separate buckets and 5G carboys I was planning to use but hadn't figured out what to do for serving. I was thinking about just using a picnic tap to prevent the cross-contamination. How long do your beers stay on tap? Maybe with the cold of your keezer the clean beers don't get enough time to pick up the funk/sourness? This particular beer has been on tap since December and I only started noticing the sourness about 3 weeks ago.

No, I (almost) always bottle the last gallon or so of each keg. I've only had trouble with that one set of bottles that I mentioned. Honestly, I've had more trouble with *intentionally* soured beers tasting the way I'd hoped than I have with cross-contamination to clean beers.