Sour taste to Bud Light

[romeszaors]

Need some advice...

Picked up a 1/4 barrel of Bud Light from my local Albertsons. Got it home and popped it in my Kegerator. Set PSI to about 10. Had a couple of pours that evening. Tasted great. The next night when I poured a glass, the beer had a sour smell/taste. The smell is worse than the taste (if that makes any sense). It almost smells like wine. Kind of like vinegar. Color and foam look normal.

Any thoughts on this? Could the beer have been off from the distributor (and perhaps I just didn't notice it the first night I drank it.) Or, could something else have gone wrong in the 24 hours from the time it was tapped to the time I noticed the off smell/taste.

The store said they would exchange it. But, I don't want to get another keg just to have the same problem the second time.

Any advice would be helpful.

P.S. - I have run several kegs of BL through this system with no problems. Though it has been about six months since anything was tapped.

Thanks.

[pvs6]

The obvious question here with 6 months down time and a sour taste (which is most commonly the result of fouled parts), would be did you clean the system before tapping? Bad beer in the keg does happen but not very often. Check the date of bottling on the keg.

[romeszaors]

The born on date is Dec. 2014. So, that seems fine.

I did not clean the beer line before tapping. But, the first few pours tasted fine. If it was a cleanliness issue, wouldn't the first pours have tasted bad?

I have since cleaned the beer line and faucet to no avail.

The obvious question here with 6 months down time and a sour taste (which is most commonly the result of fouled parts), would be did you clean the system before tapping? Bad beer in the keg does happen but not very often. Check the date of bottling on the keg.

[KillianBoy]

romeszaors,
Yeah, if you didn't clean before leaving for 6 months, the beer and crud dried, first pour fine, but as the beer re-hydrated beer and crud, thus causing bad taste. I would replace line, clean with beer line cleaner for other parts (use small brushes to clean all inside parts), check the beer check ball and see if discolored.
KB

[psychodad]

Were it me, I'd clean everything. And not just by running BLC through it. I'd disassemble the coupler and faucets as well as flush the lines. Once that is ruled out, it leaves nothing but the keg, which I would wager is fine.

[romeszaors]

Thank you.

I wont be able to get new lines and/or clean well until this coming weekend. What should I do in the meantime? Leave alone, untap, or something else? I assume the beer in the keg is OK, it's when the beer is run through dirty parts is where it's picking up the bad taste?

romeszaors,
Yeah, if you didn't clean before leaving for 6 months, the beer and crud dried, first pour fine, but as the beer re-hydrated beer and crud, thus causing bad taste. I would replace line, clean with beer line cleaner for other parts (use small brushes to clean all inside parts), check the beer check ball and see if discolored.
KB

[KillianBoy]

romeszaors,
Just take coupler off keg, and disconnect gas and beer (make sure you turn off gas at tank and regulator), then just soak in water for now, after disconnecting you can take off faucet and do same and disassemble and inspect for stuck on crud. Look at beer line and look for black/dark spots.
KB