Horrible taste Irish Stout

[Loudawg7777]

I just racked an Irish stout into a keg. The guy at the brew store
Told me to set the pressure at 30psi and refrigerate it a week
Before drinking. I cleaned and sanitized the keg (5 gallon Pepsi style)
Racked the beer from the primary, pressurized the keg, purged it, and
Refrigerated it. About 5 hours later I poured a little beer into a cup to have
A little taste, and I spit it out! It was disgusting! Is there too much pressure?
Not carbed long enough? This was my first time with a keg and I just want to
save the beer! What happened? Any thoughts?

 

[bottlebomber]

You're going to have to describe "disgusting" a little better. Was it the very first pull off the keg? In that case you were drinking yeast, cold break, and hop trub. I don't see that tasting very good.

 

[Loudawg7777]

It tasted like metal kind of, very hard to describe because I've never tasted anything like it. I poured more out, about 4 cups, and tried again and it still tasted the same. It smells like it tastes. Should I turn the pressure down, purge it, and wait? I'm lost at this point and think its a wasted batch...

 

[bottlebomber]

Have you have an Irish stout before? What was the recipe? The roasted barely in stouts can sometimes take on a very bitter, sour, or acidic/astringent flavor. Could it be this that you're tasting?

 

[Loudawg7777]

I tried the beer before racking it into the keg and it had an awesome flavor. After being in the keg 5 hours it tasted like metal.

 

[Loudawg7777]

Could it be carbonic acid?

 

[bottlebomber]

Could it be carbonic acid?

Nah... Everyone would have it if it was. How did you clean the kegs? Did you flush the lines?

 

[RM-MN]

Tell us about the recipe, the procedure used to make the beer, fermentation temperature and time, stuff like that. Otherwise we're just shooting in the dark at a moving target.

 

[Loudawg7777]

It was the keg! I racked the beer back into the fermenting bucket I used, capped it and then cleaned the hell out of the keg using Iodophor, and using the co2 to flush the lines in the keg. Then I rinsed it and racked the beer back in, set the pressure to about 12psi and turned the temp setting on the fridge way down. Results? The beer tastes great now! No more metal taste, and it's got a great hoppy flavor that's almost smoky. All it took was cleaning the keg better I guess!

 

[bottlebomber]

Glad to hear you figured it out, and it didn't ruin your batch

 

[Beer-lord]

My stouts take a good 4-5 weeks before they are good. I'd give it a few more weeks but I don't highly carb mine. I set mine for 20 psi for 24 hours then down to 10 for 24 then 5 to serve. This after it's sat in the keg at room temp for at least 3 weeks.

 

[Loudawg7777]

The guys at the brew shop told me not to let the beer sit in the keg, they said to charge it with co2 and get it right into the fridge. Is this a matter of opinion? Or does it really make the beer that much better?

 

[bja]

The guys at the brew shop told me not to let the beer sit in the keg, they said to charge it with co2 and get it right into the fridge.

What does that mean?

Is this a matter of opinion? Or does it really make the beer that much better?

I think it's a bunch of BS. I wouldn't be taking advice from these guys.

 

[Loudawg7777]

I think you're right. They said to charge it with 30lbs and put it in the freezer. That almost killed it. I ended up turning the fridge down and turned down the co2 and it was great. They also told me one week was good enough for fermentation... They have 30 years of experience, so I trusted them, but so far the advice isn't very sound. Maybe they were testing me to see if I would do the research to get it right? All I know is that the stout turned out great but we're going to try it a couple more times to get it right. The second batch I'm working on is already going 1000% smoother than the first one. This time it's going to sit in the carboy at least 2-3 weeks, then go in the keg at room temperature about a week, then to the fridge....

 

[gr8shandini]

I don't think it was the keg. And I wouldn't be so quick to blame your LHBS. A week at 30 psi for a refrigerated beer is going to end up way over-carbonated. A week at 30 psi at room temperature would be just about right (for most beers). So their advice may have been correct, just misinterpreted. Use one of the force carbonation charts to figure out your exact settings for temperature and desired volumes of CO2 (I'd want about 1.5-1.9 in a stout):

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

Also, I don't think their advice for time in primary was that far off base. 7 days is a little sporty, but for an average gravity ale, 10-14 days is plenty. Most of my ales get served within three weeks of the brew date. A stout takes a little longer to come together, but we're still only talking a month (for dry, non-imperial type stout).

Finally, there's no real reason to leave it at room temp in the keg for a week. Once you've decided that primary is over, it's best to get it chilled as quickly as possible. Nothing bad will happen if you leave it warm (especially if you purge with CO2), but a lot of stuff will start to drop out of suspension once it gets cold. A lot of homebrewers seem to think that cloudiness is just cosmetic, but all that stuff floating around in there has a taste, and it's generally not desirable - even in a beer that's so dark you can't see it.

 

[Loudawg7777]

Thanks, I'll definitely take that into consideration on my next batch. It should be done fermenting next week sometime.