How long beer keeps in a "dirty" keg

[The_Glue]

So i decided that alongside bottling i will force carb a portion of my beer in soda makers. (those 1-2 liter bottles whose work with small co2 cartridges)

Since it takes less than a day to carb a beer this way can i just rinse the bottles with water? I don't think the beer will go bad even the bottle is full of infections, there is cold in the fridge and i will keep the beer in the bottle only for max. 3 days.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I wouldn't. But then again I wouldn't just rinse off a plate to eat my dinner from it.

But it's your beer, stomach, intestinal system.

 

[atom]

you are already sanitizing the glass bottles right? why not just do them all?

 

[JonM]

Do those things even work with beer? I know the sodastream makers are only meant to carbonate pure water. Try to do anything else, and kablooie!! There's plenty of videos of people trying to carbonate wine or juice and then having an enormous mess all over the ceiling and walls.

 

[The_Glue]

Do those things even work with beer? I know the sodastream makers are only meant to carbonate pure water. Try to do anything else, and kablooie!! There's plenty of videos of people trying to carbonate wine or juice and then having an enormous mess all over the ceiling and walls.

It works, the "machine" looks like this:

 

[The_Glue]

I put in uncarbed beer, attached the CO2 cartridge, CO2 filled up the headspace just like in a bottle carbed bottle then i put it into the fridge for a few hours to get the CO2 into solution. No shaking. Only foam comes out if i press that arm but if i slowly screw off the head thing which holds the cartridge and everything else really then i can pour out the beer normally.
I can't see how i could explode it unless i overfill but my bottle is see-through with clear markers of the maximum amount of liquid.

 

[The_Glue]

you are already sanitizing the glass bottles right? why not just do them all?

Well i put sugar in my bottles and store them at 70F for 3weeks-few years which gives them plenty of opportunity to get the harmful stuff growing so i sanitize them with Star-San but in this case i store it in the fridge for 3 days max. I mean i probably could pitch lacto and brett in it without getting any activity at this short time and cold temp. Or am i wrong? I have never used keg like systems before.

 

[Psylocide]

Isn't that a seltzer bottle? I've seen clowns with them before.

Looks stupid easy to clean and sanitize. Why not just do it?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I put in uncarbed beer, attached the CO2 cartridge, CO2 filled up the headspace just like in a bottle carbed bottle then i put it into the fridge for a few hours to get the CO2 into solution. No shaking. Only foam comes out if i press that arm but if i slowly screw off the head thing which holds the cartridge then i can pour out the beer normally.
I can't see how i could explode it unless i overfill but my bottle is see-through with clear markers of the maximum amount of liquid.

I think he thought,

 

[JonM]

Yep, that is what I was picturing.

 

[The_Glue]

Btw i am not against sanitizing, i am just a bit uneasy with getting a lot of Star-San foam into only like 1/3gal or 1 liter of beer which gets consumed so fast that the yeast won't eat any of the Star-San.

 

[fosaisu]

Btw i am not against sanitizing, i am just a bit uneasy with getting a lot of Star-San foam into only like 1/3gal or 1 liter of beer which gets consumed so fast that the yeast won't eat any of the Star-San.

There won't be much Starsan left in the bottle after you sanitize -- the Starsan foam looks big but bubbles contain deceptively little liquid. If you're concerned though, let it settle for a minute (cap on) for a few minutes after you've dumped the Starsan, and then dump any residue that settles to the bottom. There'll be almost no Starsan left, and it will readily dilute with the beer you add (I have no idea if the "yeast eat it" thing is true, but my understanding is that Starsan is essentially an acid and any injury it might do you is gone once it's diluted with thousands of times its mass in beer).

[EDIT: That said, out of pure laziness I don't always Starsan my growlers (usually just wash them out well) before filling them if I know the beer will be finished that day or the next. Just didn't want you to be unnecessarily concerned about the health-effects of Starsan!]

 

[Psylocide]

Really though, if I'm making similar beers, I'll run three batches through the keg before I clean it.

You're probably right that stored for 3 days, cold, with alcohol present will not affect the beer.

At least clean it out though.

 

[kh54s10]

Don't fear the foam. If you could get it out of the bottle and let the bubbles pop you would get maybe 1/8 a teaspoon.....

 

[m00ps]

Btw i am not against sanitizing, i am just a bit uneasy with getting a lot of Star-San foam into only like 1/3gal or 1 liter of beer which gets consumed so fast that the yeast won't eat any of the Star-San.

You wont notice it. I keep my empty kegs with probably 20oz or so of starsan to shake around and push out the dip tube before filling. I dumbly forgot to get it out of there and racked an entire beer on top of it. Couldnt taste anything. Starsans great. Probably sanitized my digestive system for a bit

 

[The_Glue]

So i got this thing going with a Star-Sanned bottle and a water rinse only bottle and it did not made any difference but the beers only stayed in there for like 8 hours at fridge temps.

Now the more important question is: Can i tap my primary with an auto-syphon more than once? Like every day for a week until the primary get empty? Will the CO2 layer stay upon the beer in the primary? (I use glass carboys)

 

[HumulusHead]

So i got this thing going with a Star-Sanned bottle and a water rinse only bottle and it did not made any difference but the beers only stayed in there for like 8 hours at fridge temps.



Now the more important question is: Can i tap my primary with an auto-syphon more than once? Like every day for a week until the primary get empty? Will the CO2 layer stay upon the beer in the primary? (I use glass carboys)

So are you basically siphoning off one beer at a time and carbing one beer at a time with that thing?

If that's the case, I don't think your co2 layer will be staying in the carboy. Once you siphon some to the carb thing, the carboy is going to pull in air from outside the carboy to replace the space the beer used to take up. I would think after a few days of this the beer would start to oxidize

 

[The_Glue]

So are you basically siphoning off one beer at a time and carbing one beer at a time with that thing?

If that's the case, I don't think your co2 layer will be staying in the carboy. Once you siphon some to the carb thing, the carboy is going to pull in air from outside the carboy to replace the space the beer used to take up. I would think after a few days of this the beer would start to oxidize

Yeah I do that, what you say sounds right. I wonder how long dryhopped stuff will keep.

 

[The_Glue]

Just an update:

i syphoned a portion out of 4 glass primary fermenters and all of the leftover beer went bad in the carboys. They smell like vegetable/apples. (and also taste like them a bit)
Now i got enough sody syphons/seltzer bottles for 1 gallon of beer and from now on i will probably separate my 4 gal brews into 4 1 gallon fermenters.

(btw i soak the syphon in starsan which is kinda old and milky, will measure ph soon to se if it still works)