Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Have any of you keggers noticed a difference in flavor when you pull a pint after not having done so for a while? I swear that the beer in the line tastes different than that in the keg. Maybe its common knowledge but I'm new to kegging my brew. I pulled off 4oz of  British IPA that had been sitting in the line for at least 24 hours and then promptly pulled off another fresh 4oz or so. Totally different! Maybe the draft line beer oxidized--it tasted buttery (diacetyl-esque) while the fresher pull tasted right on for a relatively young IPA.

I've seen plugs you can stick in the end of your faucets, maybe I should look into them. Any experience with faucet plugs or with weird beer line flavors?

I still drank it though. 

Yes. I have definitely noticed this.  Funny that you are the first person that I have ever seen mention it in any forum!  Once you empty the draft line and new beer from the keg starts flowing through, it does taste different, and usually better.  I'm going to guess it has to do with the slight permeability of the rubber hose, but it's hard for me to believe that this can happen so quickly.  Throughout an evening is okay, but after 24 hours I can begin to detect a difference. And, as you know, I don't use cornies, so I don't think it has anything to do with the way that specific keg works or such.  Also, I use a picnic tap that stays inside my fridge, so it's not the warming of the beer sitting in the tap atop your kegerator either.

I have also noticed this. I also noticed that dark beers stain my tap lines? so there certainly must be some permeability that is greater than desired.

Weird. I'm still drinking it all anyways but I'll poke around the internet to find some hard facts and confusing scientific explanation.

Beer in the line has no CO2 compression.  Therefore it is prone to oxidation, which is what you are getting.  Just pour a bigger glass of beer and you will not have to worry about it.   

Are your beer lines cold all the way through?  I had read something about if part of the line is not cold, the first pint you pour will have carbonation problems.  Not sure if that has anything to do with this problem, as I have never kegged, I just remember it as being a "first pint pulled" problem.

This is true, Tom.  With intense insulation on my system, I don't get flat beer. It's only like a couple of oz's that come from the beer line that might be a little less than cold.  I can see oxidation happening if you had high temps in the beer line. There is no CO2 compression on the beer in the line, which can amount to oxidation.  Only the length of the tap tower is not chilled directly as an original component of the fridge, but it does stay cold to the touch, and the insulation I put up in there helps keep the cold air from escaping the fridge/tower. Somehow it works.  And there is only 3 fingers of beer coming from that line.  Makes me want to pour some more.  I think I will . . . maybe 10 fingers worth.

My keg and picnic faucet and all hoses are inside the refrigerator. No beer ever leaves the cold temperatures of the kegerator unless it's in a glass. And I still have the off-flavors from the beer that sits in the line, so I don't think temperature can explain all of it. Warmer temps could possibly make the problem worse, but can't completely account for it.

Must be oxidation or contamination.  Like I said, I don't have a problem with temperature either.  The end of my faucets are even cold.  Maybe it is the beer line monsters that come in at night, open the fridge door, plug in their hand-held UV light, and blasts the beer in the line, skunking the hops.