Oxidisation problem

[scarer]

I made a beer that has been maturing in a king keg top tap and as mentioned in another thread the cap developed a crack whilst I was away working for 4 days.
I replaced the cap as soon as I found the crack and purged out any air. The beer still had a slight fizz about it but no head and went flat quite quickly after being poured.

I now think that it is oxidised.

This may be a silly question but could it be just the top inch or two of beer that is affected being only 1-4 days exposure, and by drawing off 4 lts of beer using the king keg top tap might the beer underneath be ok?

[mattmacleod]

What makes you think it is oxidised? Have you noticed an off flavour (normally a cardboardy taste with oxidation).

As Daab says, the headspace in the keg would contain a lot of CO2 and I doubt very much whether a small crack would cause too much of an issue. Also, if the beer was carbonated at all, you would have positive pressure within the keg and therefore flow out of, rather than into, the keg.

You may have to wait a little longer for the beer to recondition, though.

[scarer]

Yeah, I keep going back to it and retrying it and I'm still not sure.

The crack was quite large approx 2" long but there was some pressure out of the top tap when I discovered it which is a good sign.

I'll stick with it a bit longer and see, and I keep topping up the co2 to get the condition back.