Sadly, my brother-in-law Barry passed away a few months ago. At some point in his life he was a homebrewer - I’ve been one for about 4 years and I don’t think he has brewed in that time. As I was helping my sister sort his stuff out, we found a bunch of corny kegs in his storage, two of which are full. My sister let me have the corny’s (all of which are still under pressure) and I tapped the two full kegs (which had a LOT of pressure, I suspect from continued fermentation). One is slightly hazy and very sour, the other is also sour, not as extreme as the first, but much, much hazier (I tapped them as soon as I got them home, curiosity got to me, so they were undoubtedly unsettled from all the movement).
The question, which is in the title, is “would you drink this beer?”. I’m not a fan of sours, so I’m inclined to dump them out, but with a bunch of empty corny’s, I’m also OK letting them sit in a more controlled environment and see what happens (as a sort of science experiment).
What are your thoughts?
I’m sorry for your loss…I guess it’s really up to you how to deal with the kegs. I don’t think there is any danger from the beer.
If you want to let it ride, it can’t hurt things, although if the base beer doesn’t taste good right now it won’t improve things.
Because you’re not a sour fan, I don’t see much point in keeping them…I vote “empty and clean the keg.” (as you likely know already, I would give it a very thorough disassembly and replacement of the gaskets, etc., so you don’t end up with future accidental sours – without knowing more, it’s possible the ones in the keg are accidental sours also!)
I would love to know what Barry was brewing, whether this was an accidental sour or intended as such (maybe we get lucky and find his notes or recipes). I wasn’t afraid of the sour, I did drink what I drew out to test with the hydrometer (1.006 and 1.010, but rather irrelevant without knowing the OG).
Yeah, all the kegs are going to get a thorough cleaning, and new gaskets/o-rings too. I am pleased that they’re all still holding pressure, but, yeah, cleaning is paramount.
Sorry to read about your brother-in-law.
Smell it. Smell OK?
Look at it. Look OK?
Sip it. Taste OK?
Reminds me of the old Cheech & Chong comedy bit “Cherborneck”.
LOL! You, sir, are a genius!
I actually thought of that Cheech and Chong bit when sniffing and tasting this brew, though no way I would have ever remembered the name of the skit.
Ultimately, I’ll probably dump it out, I’m just not into sours. But with all the cornys I have now, I’m gonna leave it be for a while until I need those kegs.
I would very much doubt that your brother-in-a-law (or any homebrewer for that matter) would want you to drink beer that you aren’t a fan of. You could always bottle off a couple bottles of each if you wanted to be nostalgic. Perhaps the best thing to do is brew a favorite recipe in his honor…
“…bottle off a couple of bottles…”
That’s a great idea! Obvious too, why didn’t I think of that? 
I’ve been thinking about this a lot because it really touched me. I like the idea of bottling a couple of bottles. I was also thinking you could do a commemorative brew, and/or create and name a recipe in his honor. My last thought here is you could etch his name on the cornies, so whenever you use them you get a little reminder of him.
If you’re not a sour beer fan, doesn’t really make sense to keep the beer or force yourself to drink it. Sour beers don’t get unsour so that beer is either stable or will continue to get more sour and/or infected flavor. Honor his memory by giving those kegs a really deep clean and brew up his favorite recipes.
I actually ripped off the Cheech and Chong comedy bit on an international shortwave broadcast a few years ago. Also, “sped ridden course”.