I was troubleshooting a slight funk in my beers. Kegs, flasks, tubing, fermenters, QDs, spigots, etc. Turned out to be my draft lines. I sent some 130° EasyClean solution through them last night followed by some Starsan and a beer that was tasting mildly funky yesterday is exactly as it should be today. Clearly my fault and I need to own it. I have experienced this but not quite as pronounced as this time. Another clue was that one of my 4 faucets (pesky #2) was pouring quite lively… quite a bit of foam. Once the cleaning and sanitizing took place… much better. Clean your draft lines Beerheads. Cheers.
Cheers!!! [emoji482]
Glad you found the culprit. I have foamy taps too. It’s easy to ignore. I better get cleaning.
Good call. I admittedly don’t do it enough.
I started using this Bev-Seal Ultra beer line… it’s really stiff and hard (whoa, that sounds dirty) and not soft like the old-school beer line. I thought this stuff was less likely to have this issue but that is not an excuse. Beer lines need to be cleaned just like all the rest of the equipment but it’s one the easy things to miss or ignore. I have been boiling silicone tubing, pouring boiling water into my kegs and flasks, etc. thinking I had a bug. I did… it was in my beer lines.
We always look at our brewday equipment for things to clean and sanitize. As mentioned, the draft lines are so easy to miss. I think I’ll place some kind of schedule in my beer bunker (where my draft fridges are located) and just put the latest date that the draft lines were cleaned on there. Every time I walk into the bunker I’ll see it and then rub my chin… should I clean my draft lines? 
An easy fix, for sure. I guess I know what I am doing this weekend!
I am due for a cleaning as well. I am going to order some of the EVA barrier tubing andss connectors to replace my lines. I can get away with shorter lines and they might be a lot easier to take care of.
The Bev-Seal Ultra lines are tricky to work with but they do pour nicely. I used the John Guest fittings to put everything together. I also ‘coiled’ the lines and used zip-ties to keep them that way to make the inside of the fridge more manageable.
I forget what forum it was but someone mentioned having some ‘funky’ beers and was looking for the issue. This was just in the last month or so. Someone suggested he clean his draft lines and eventually he came back and was like “all better!” and I was surprised. I don’t know that I have ever seen it this pronounced as it was in my case and I wonder if it was a beer that started off ‘slightly funky’ and left some schputz behind in the beer lines that caused issues for subsequent beers or if it’s just a “buildup” issue. Again, I shouldn’t be surprised and I can’t claim ignorance. Cleaning is not the glamorous part of brewing but it must be done.
I’ve had this happen too. More than once I’ve pulled a pint and thought “what happened to this beer? It was great a week ago.” Took me a while to get around to cleaning the lines but once I did it, it was night and day.
Anymore, my 4 taps all seem to kick about the same time so I clean the lines before I replace the kegs. Seems to keep it under control for me.
Like Billy Joel said “what I didn’t know at first, I learned by doing twice”.
Paul
A very good reason to clean your lines and faucets every 2 or 3 weeks. I also follow up with an acid rinse and disassemble the faucets for a deep clean every 3 months or so. Regardless of what draft line you use, the system does need to be cleaned periodically.
I still use cobra taps. I guess an advantage of that is that it’s easy for me to tear down my entire dispense system every time a keg empties.
I have been to places with 200+ taps. I can only imagine what it must be like to have to clean that. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I have to clean my tiny 4 tap system.
Most brewers dont, myself included. Its on my list to do this afternoon.
I just eliminated the lines. I installed flow control taps right onto the QD via an adapter. Removal, disassembly, cleaning, assembly, and reinstallation is a pleasure for an old aircraft mechanic.
I don’t have lines either. But, my flow control faucets start to spit and foam if I don’t clean them. I assume they could still harbor some bacteria or wild yeast.
I recirculate Starsan through them using a pump from time to time to get them flowing right again.
+1. I disassemble and clean them after each keg kicks. Just part of the routine.
When a keg kicks I fill it with PBW then run it through the line. After it sits for a while, I rinse the keg and line with water, then repeat with Star San. Every 2 or 3 kegs I use BLC instead of PBW for step 1.
I’ve been trying to make a routine of monthly cleaning of lines, but it doesn’t always happen. But, when it’s been a while, once I finally clean them the difference is definitely noticeable. The beer flavor is much more “lively.”
I use cheap food grade line and replace annually rather than spend the money on the fancy draft lines. Still clean with one/rinse/star San between every keg. Some 1/2" tubing and the ball lock jumpers from brewhardware make it easy to do all three lines at once.