Got the Helles keg mixed up with the sour keg....

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I was preparing to rack a sour beer to a new keg to prepare for bottling and somehow got it mixed up with the Munich Helles lager I had also kegged that has been lagering for the last few weeks.  The keg that I was racking to had about 3.6oz of corn sugar/cup of sterile water plus 3g of rehydrated champagne yeast that was supposed to carbonate the sour beer.  So now I have a keg of lagered helles with champagne yeast and priming sugar.  Questions:

  • I suspect the lager yeast of the helles had been stripped out pretty well as this is now the 3rd transfer for this beer under cold temps (36F or so) with compact sediment below the racking port.
  • What temp should I let this keg carbonate at?  I presume maybe 65F or so for the champagne yeast to do its thing???  Website says 59F-82F.
  • The final gravity of the Helles was 1.010.  In addition to the corn sugar, should I suspect the champagne yeast to chew through any of the residual gravity points the lager yeast left over.  Is this a potential problem in terms of explosions?  May be a pretty dry lager…

So mad at myself for this mistake…

2

Personally, I don’t think you’ll see any problems. 
You might see a bit more carbonation than you may have been planning on due to the champagne yeast but that’s about it.
Let them carb as you normally would but check one a day or 2 earlier to verify how much CO2 you’re getting.
You won’t notice any flavor changes due to this.  It’s really just a secondary yeast addition at bottling.

(IMHO)

Paul

3

All the more reason to drink it up!  How quickly the Champaign yeast start to dry it out beyond your liking, depends, of course.  Cold temperature will slow it’s activity and the sugars added will have a perceptible difference, if you are really dialed in on the Kölsch flavor you had before.  So time for a few friends to help you out and then brew again!

I have had a situation where I had a full keg of beer and I accidentally hooked up a sanitizer flow from another keg, but Icaught the mistake almost instantly and no one detected anything off (I can’t say that any actually entered the keg - but I had the same concerns that you are raising…)

Good luck and Cheers!

4

Most champagne yeast won’t eat complex sugars. EC 1118 can eat complex sugars but I wouldn’t expect it to do so here given your gravity of 1.010.