I am going to keg my first sour batch. I am dedicating the keg and tap handle to sour beers. I was just wondering if the gas line from my regulator should be designated as sour as well. I was wondering if souring bacteria could get into the gas lines. I am hoping not, since it is a dual regulator and I am planning on hooking up other beers with the other line out of my regulator. So will my other beer on my dual regulator be in jeopardy of going sour because it is sharing the same regulator? When I am done with the sour, is it okay to hook up another non sour beer to that co2 line? I guess my question is, will the bacteria get into my regulator/gas lines? Thanks for the help. I think I am paranoid...
I wouldn't worry much, just make sure beer doesn't back up inline & between kegs of sour to clean I would just soak the gas disconnect in near boiling water then in PBW and then iodophor soln. Make sure to work the disconnect up and down in the PBW & iodophor.
Thanks. So I shouldn't worry if I have a non sour on the same regulator at the same time? Regulator has two separate controls with two separate gas lines.
No.. just get some check valves on your lines so you don't worry about getting liquid back in your lines. Should be used regardless of sour/clean beers.
Yes, Yes you are..... There's no reason to dedicate a tap or a keg to sour beers, if you clean your lines regularly you'll have no issues Ive never once worried about this and in ~8yrs of lambics, F Reds, B-weiss, K-common, and other random things Ive made I have never had cross contamination or an inadvertent infection
As others have stated, as long as beer isn't going up the dip tube and into the post/quick connect you don't have an issue. I have a buddy who infects every beer he puts onto a specific CO2 line because he overfilled the keg and shot the beer back into his gas line. Without check valves it made it to his regulator. If you have a check valve and don't overfill the keg (or hook your gas QD to the liquid out post) or turn the keg on its side and shake it around while the gas is hooked up, should be fine.
All your kegged beers are stored at cold temperatures and generally they are not kept in a keg for very long, not long enough for any bacterial or wild yeast infection to do anything to affect your clean beers. The only possible concern would be if you were to lager or age a clean beer in a keg as a secondary vessel.
