black flecks in my kegged beer?
  • frydogbrewsfrydogbrews
    Posts: 44,679
    so the last few batches of kegged beer seem to throw out these little black flecks that sink to the bottom.
    at first i thought these were pieces of the irish moss that got through into the kegs. but now i have stopped using the irish moss, and use whirlfloc. still having it show up. no clue what they are. never many in any single pint, maybe two or three, totally flat, and about 1/8 of an inch with weird, random shapes.
    this happens in several kegs and i don't see anything growing in the lines or anything funky like that. every line gets flushed with star san anytime i clean a keg, so maybe every 3 weeks on average.

    every 3 or 4th filling i take the whole keg apart and clean everything, but between these big cleanings i just rinse and scrub the keg clean, then purge the dip tube, then fill with star san and swish all around, pressurize and shoot about two cups out through a faucet to make sure it gets through the dip tube really well. i never see anything in there.

    please help.
    i am worried these are pieces of poison that gnomes are putting in my kegs to kill me!!!!
  • ThymThym
    Posts: 122,569 Accepted Answer
    When is the last time you dismanteled your ball lock fittings? I've had interesting thing grow in there.
    The only thing between me and a train wreck is blind luck..... - Kenny
  • frydogbrewsfrydogbrews
    Posts: 44,679
    hmmm.....short answer, never.
    didn't know i could do that.
    only had this kegging setup for a a year, maybe 14 months
  • FuzzyFuzzy
    Posts: 49,777
    i'd agree with lake. poppits, dip tube, qd's. that's where all the gunk likes to hide in my kegs.
    The pinnacle of lame and awesome in one singular moment. -Lake
  • frydogbrewsfrydogbrews
    Posts: 44,679
    looked around a little more and it appears to be "beerstone" thin little patches of gunk that affixes to random thing. gonna flush all lines with BLC tomorrow really really well and see how that helps.
    totally harmless, just kinda gross
  • ThymThym
    Posts: 122,569 Accepted Answer
    Beerstone is usually hard calcified depoisits. Not black funky stuff. Follow Ace's connector dissasembly to clean those guys.
    The only thing between me and a train wreck is blind luck..... - Kenny
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