When it comes to beer I am a rookie so please be nice. I haven’t bought a keg in years. I bought a 50L keg for my birthday which doesn’t start for about 24 hours. Out of excitement, upon getting home, I tapped my keg to pour myself one of those initial foamy glasses of beer (Just a manual pump). I DID NOT pump the manual pump at all as the keg is already pressurized but I did open the valve and pour myself and my wife a glass. I then realized the party isn’t until tomorrow after finishing my glass (about 10-15 minutes). I immediately un-tapped the keg.
My question is, even though I didn’t pump yet, by pouring those two glasses did I ruin my beer for tomorrows party? Should I be seeking a last-minute replacement keg if possible or will it not be completely flat.
Narcout is correct. You should be good man. Even if you did introduce a tiny bit of oxygen–and you probably didn’t–it wouldn’t ruin the beer at all, let alone do so in 24 hours.
But, if you have any beer left in that keg after the party, it will quickly become undrinkable from the oxygen introduced by the manual pumping you’ll be doing during the party. It won’t be dangerous to drink, but it will taste strongly like wet cardboard.