My keg of homebrew leaked for two weeks & has no pressure. Is it still good & how can I fix & recarbonate it?

Question

So I brewed my first batch of beer, making a 5 gal. batch of Weizenbier. I put 3 gal. in a small keg and put the other 2 gallons in flip top bottles. I used 1/2 cup of priming sugar for the whole batch and let it carbonate for 2 weeks. After exactly 2 weeks we opened some bottles and they came out AWESOME. The taste was good & crisp with no odd aftertastes. All in all, a great first try. But my 3 gal. keg apparently had a leak at the top. I used a new O ring kit but didn't have a good lube for it and had to resort to cooking oil for a seal (crappy idea, I know). I also didn't have any nickels to put under the stoppers, and so had a leak. But is there any way to save it? Did it oxygenate during the leaking process? Could I hit it with a little CO2 and remove the lid, re-grease the seal with a better lube, use some nickels to give it a tighter seal, and then hit it with CO2 again to pressurize? It was so good and I was so happy and want some more. Please help!!!

Answer 1

You might as well give it a try, the option is just to pitch the whole keg.  I think there is a good chance that the beer is still good.

Answer 2

Agreeing with the advise above, I add this. Your beer is unlikely contaminated with wild yeast or bacteria. This is because as the beer was being carbonated (re-carbonated) and the CO2 leaked out from the seal it prevented anything from getting into the keg and your beer. So it is most likely clean.

Rack and follow the advise above.

The vegetable oil is not a good idea for a lubricant. I use no lubricant for my keg seals. If you must use one I suggest it be of "food grade" quality. Also try to prevent it from contact with your beer as some oils/fats will cause your beer to become flat.  

Jay, please study the biochemical pathways of yeast fermentation before giving advise.

Answer 3

There's a lot going on here, but I think your beer is still good.  You said a 3gal keg, but I read that to be 3gals of beer in a 5gal soda keg?

I also don't know about what the nickels are for.  I've been homebrewing for several years and I use the soda kegs and have never resorted to nickels and such.  

The point of hitting it with CO2 and removing the lid seems like it would cancel each other out.  A hit of CO2 should reseal the keg while removing the lid would destroy that seal.

My best guess is you have a faulty keg.  If this is the case, I would drain into your bottles, recarbonate with sugar and replace all the seals on your keg until it holds pressure.

If your sure your keg is sound, just force carbonate it and tap and you should be good.

As for the guy who says it may be poisonous:  He's wrong.  There's no poisonous bacteria that lives in beer.  It can only be poisonous if you pour something poisonous into it.  The worst that can happen is it tastes bad.

Answer 4

The biggest problem with not having sealed it is not the loss of CO2, but that with oxygen around your yeast was not making proper alcohol (ethanol) but instead methanol. That beer stands a good chance of being poisonous.

You should toss it out and forget the whole sordid affair. Next time, instead of using strange stoppers, etc. just use a simple S-valve (they are maybe 30¢, be sure to put the water in it) and a rubber cap that will fit the valve (again, pretty cheap). I got mine at homebrewit.com, they have some other good stuff too.

Answer 5

I would say you know what to do.

Whether it has oxidised I can not say without a sample. The classic oxidation is detected as wet paper/cardboard falvor. It is literally as simple as chewing on paper (but in the beer the flavor can be very subtle) to know the flavor caused by beer oxidation. A classic commercial example of an oxidised beer is New Castle Brown.

Was there enough yeast to start a mild carbonationg ferment in the keg?

Yes.

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In NO way is your yeast going to produce methyl alcohol. It is not a concern for you ever when brewing beer.

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I would say, push it over to a new keg and either kraeusen it with a new batch or force CO2 into it with a beer corbonation stone.

You can get a test pressure guage for you kegs. About $20-30 from a good suppler. Put it on and pressurize your keg. Take readings for a few hours or days to track its ability to hold pressure.