You know what sucks? Spending hours and hours not to mention the money involved in making a special beer only to have it suck. My 1933 Drybrough Burns Ale tastes thin, flat (body, not carbonation) and slightly like wet cardboard.
I know where the problem lies and you are probably way ahead of me based on that last descriptor... "wet cardboard". It's oxidation.
I used my brand new, untried SS Brewtech 7 gallon Chronical for the first time and it worked like a champ. The Chronical did not come with a fitting for the racking valve so I bought a barbed fitting. I didn't pay much attention to what size and it turned out to be for 12" ID tubing which is larger than any other racking tubing that I have used. I am pretty sure what happened is that a lot of air was allowed to enter my keg during transfer because the beer was coming out with more force and volume than normal. I was concerned about it at the time and here we are three weeks later and my first sampling confirms it.
For about 60 bucks I can buy the parts from SS Brewtech to do pressurized, closed transfers. That sounds like money well spent if it helps me avoid dumping another beer.
