Have you gotten infected beer on tap often?

Never had an infected beer on tap. Had some in bottles though.Pretty rare, maybe half a percent, tops.

What beer did you have that was completely flat? There's only a few that I can think of that are intentionally flat. Usually flat beer is a bad sign, but they're usually just oxidized, not necessarily infected.

Dope

 

Any respectable beer bar should be tasting the beer when they tap it. At my store, we have had one bad keg of dark horse crooked tree iPa. Had that dirty sock smell and taste. Knew it immediately. Distributor took it back no questions asked.

 

The chances of getting served infected beer are going to be pretty low as an employee or one of the first customers would notice the problem pretty quickly and the beer would get pulled.

Infected beer in kegs does happen though...I've encountered a few at my store (growlers), but since we test everything we put on tap (such a hard job), no customers are ever served that infected beer and we return the keg to the distributor.

 

Once. Night Stalker.

Well, I thought it was infected.

 

It's happened to me from time to time.

 

Never. If you go to a bar that serves infected beer on draft you should never go back there again.

 

Michigan does not require the lines to be cleaned on a regular basis, as some states do. You might be surprised how many places have had problems with infected lines.

There is a place near Milford where on occasion I need to stop in for a function. like a retirement party. Their lines are full of nasty microbes, well at least for the craft beer selections. Go to a bar when they open, and get the first pour of the day, that is a good way to tell if the lines are clean or not.

Now we have Palate in Milford. Joe has the lines cleaned on a 2 week schedule. The beers are served in great shape.

Edit - One also needs to know what different infections taste like. There are many microbes that can infect lines, and they give different tastes. Some are easy to pick out like acetobactor, and others are more subtle.

 

Generally speaking, infected beer has above normal carbonation. I have never had an infected beer from a tap. Had a number of them from bottle, though.

 

Some in this thread have experienced infected lines.
http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/tap-vs-bottle.85441/

Does NY require regular line cleaning?

 

I honestly don't know. I will ask.

Funny that after voting and posting above I remembered one time I may have gotten an infected beer from tap at a local brewpub.

 

I had one too, a Stout that was sourish.

 

I've never had an infected beer on tap. I have had beer that came through dirty tap lines that tasted gross, but that's a different matter. Those tend to be bars that don't get repeat business from me.

 

I never seem to have any of the problems that are often posted about on this board.

 

I had a liter of Paulaner Maerzen taste like a flanders red once. Delicious infection. I even got a second.