Chromeschlager - Plated Chrome Draft Hardware Flaking Into Beer

Brewing Processes
1

I bought a used kegerator a couple weeks ago; only the fridge part was in good shape so I shelled out for new lines, corny keg post couplers, regulator, shank, and a knock-off Perlick faucet from a reputable draft beer service company here in Denver.  For background, I also bought a new stainless steel single-handle corny keg (one that ostensibly wasn’t every intended or used for soda).  I ran Starsan sanitizer through the keg and out the tap, then filled up the keg and started carbonating.  Over the next couple days I started taking some sample pours,  and after the first pour I started noticing metallic flakes at the bottom of my glass.  They continue in pours across separate days.

At first, I was worried the keg had not been cleaned sufficiently and that’s where they were coming from, but I bought a picnic tap and have ran several beers through it with no metallic flakes over a couple days, nor was there metal in the original beer lines.  I disassembled the tower and faucet and noticed a metal burr in the faucet interior.  Although the faucet is supposedly stainless steel, this looked suspect, so I took it back to the shop and traded up for a real Perlick. Clean looking stainless steel, no residue. So, I sanitize everything and hook back up, and pour. First glass is good, but by the second, more flakes!  I took everything apart again, and noted that while the faucet is stainless, the shank they sold me is chrome plated brass.  I did some googling about Starsan and chrome plated hardware, and sure enough, when I took the shank out of the sanitizer after a couple minutes, there was considerable plating fragments in the sanitizer solution and the inside of the shank looked to be corroded.

Obviously acid-based sanitizer doesn’t play well with the plating, but is this a reasonable occurrence with a NEW chrome-plated shank within the timeframe of minutes?  It was in contact with the sanitizer (standard 1 oz. to 5 gallons) for several minutes but not overnight or anything.  I’m just perplexed this isn’t a more common occurrence if it can happen so quickly.  I definitely didn’t see any warnings in my research prior to buying everything.  I am sure my choice of sanitizer contributed, but this seems like something a shop that deals with homebrewers should warn about if it’s such a problem.  I don’t want to be a jerk though, especially if I’m wrong. Is this my fault?

2

When I was first putting together my kegerator I read some posts on the NB forum about how beer, with its low pH, would eventually eat through chrome plating, so I bought stainless faucets and elbow shanks from the start.

I don’t recall ever hearing anything about Star San ruining chrome as quickly as you describe though.

I think it would be reasonable for a shop to warn people (at least about beer degrading chrome plating over time), but none of the major on-line retailers seem to.  Maybe it’s an issue that not a lot of people are aware of?  It doesn’t seem to be discussed very often.

3

I took the chrome plated shank to the beer tap service store and we tested it on their keg (I didn’t sanitize the lines or shank, though) and it poured clean.  They finally just gave me a stainless steel shank (probably just to make me happy) because I’d been in and out all week trying to resolve the issue.  I really don’t know unless there was some debris that was in the original faucet or shank that got stuck and would loosen whenever I sanitized. Got all stainless steel hardware from keg to faucet now and hopefully no more issues!

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Good to hear. Aside from hating how the chrome plated faucets would stick, I was never fond of the idea that sanitizer and the beer’s low pH itself could (maybe) slowly dissolve chrome plating into my beer, and me. I’m all SS, too.