Plastic Beer Keg

[phoenix68]

Hi up until recently I have always bottled my beers,due to the time involved with this I have bought couple of standard 25 litre beer kegs with bottom taps.
I have just conditioned my second brew and Ive got to say I'm not impressed with the taste.
When I attempt to draw off some of the beer I get a lot of pressure and froth it fills the hole glass with head when this settles out it taste's disgusting and flat.
I don't know what I,m doing wrong should I undo the top and release the pressure,is there something wrong with the tap or is the beer infected.I suspected infection last time so this time I was extra careful when I sterilised every thing.
The beer is brewed as i have always done in the past Coopers IPA.
Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers Graham.

 

[evanvine]

In a keg you will not get anything like the level of conditioning that you get in the bottle, but it still needs to be matured and alowed to settle out!
I've always used "top taps" and have found that I only need 1-2psi to serve the beer.
I would imagine that in a "bottom tap" you would only need enough pressure to stop the ingress of air when serving.
I think it is a little unrealistic to try and compare bottle and keg beer, real "draught" ale isn't fizzy!

 

[birket]

Hi. I'm a newcomer to this forum, but I saw your thread and thought I'd join up to say that I have a similar problem (with regards to pints of froth from my keg!).

I've been brewing beer from kits for about 12 months now. I'm on, perhaps, my 5th or 6th lot by now. I started by using a pressure barrel that came with my started kit. I then bought a second pressure barrel: a top-tap King Keg. Its much better construction, and you can get your hand in to clean which is good.

I also have starting bottling some of my beer.

I have had (and am having) the exact same problems with my pressure barrel beer. As I am a relative novice to this, I thought it was just accepted that I could not expect to be able to draw off a proper pint from the keg, and that filling a pint glass with 90% froth and 10% beer was 'normal'. Clearly I must be wrong with this assumption.

What should I be doing to stop this pressure? Should I simply unscrew the lid of the pressure barrel to release excess pressure, or will this contaminate the beer? The lid has a pressure valve built in, but I think this is to add pressure via gas cartridges rather than release pressure - am I right?

Any tips appreciated.

 

[evanvine]

Get your self a pressure gauge from here!
If you squeeze the rubber collar round the pressure relief valve you can give a controlled vent to the keg.
1 to 2psi is all you need, stops 90% froth!

 

[birket]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Can you give me the product name or code? Your link just takes me to the website. Cheers.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Bottom of THIS page.

 

[birket]

Unfortunately, the website you are pointing to is masking its individual page addresses, so you are just giving me the link to their main page.

Try it and see...
:drunk:

 

[evanvine]

If you go to the "Barrels Valves and Spares" section, it is the last item on that page.
The URL doesn't change, no matter which page you go to!

 

[jamesb]

http://www.thebrewshop.com/contents/en-uk/d79.html

Bad website!

 

[evanvine]

http://www.thebrewshop.com/contents/en-uk/d79.html

Bad website!

Don't know how you did that James, but well done!
Is just the website it's self you are referring to or some thing more sinister?

 

[jamesb]

Is just the website it's self you are referring to or some thing more sinister?

Just the website itself. I don't like sites that hide the actual page you're viewing.

 

[evanvine]

Just the website itself. I don't like sites that hide the actual page you're viewing.

Have spoken to the site owners and they are aware of the problem.
They are using some website package and don't appear to be IT literate enough to alter it (neither am I ).