Beer got 54* in brite and I want to dump more beer on top thoughts?

[beerguy1]

Well my packaging crew pulled too much beer from my 60 bbl brite and its below the cooling level and then they turned off the glycol. Air temp in brite is 54 and I want to add 30 bbl on top of it now, before I get bad words about putting beer on top I will admit I am not a fan but with the huge demand that we currently have on production this time of year I have no choice but, I usually put beer on top of cold beer. CO2 pressures are fine I took a taste and it tastes OK but thats not the best of tests. There is 6bbl left. Just looking for thoughts on it

[jebzter]

If there is any question as to the quality, dump the 6 bbl and be done with it. Nothing will be worse than having 36bbl of bad beer that nobody wants.
It is going to come down to how long its been at that temperature, and is the beer sterile when it enters the brite, or does it still have some yeast in suspension. If it has only been a day or so, you're probably ok, longer than that and I would think it has some risk. The 6 bbl in 36bbl dilution is ~17% of the total volume, you could get a sample of the incoming batch, and blend it with the old batch so that it is 83% new and 17% old. Then put it in front of people to taste, if it isn't right, you have your answer, if they can't tell the difference, then blend away and teach the cellar guys to either rack the whole tank or leave it above the probe.

I learned from a great brewer, never be afraid to dump a batch, if it is in question, dump it, apologize to your customers and ensure them that you would never ship them bad beer and this is why you're out of stock. They will be much happier that way.

[beerguy1]

Problem yesterday was the order took all my empty kegs. I am pretty sure there is a keg monster out there as I have ordered 350 kegs just this spring and I am ordering another 60 tomorrow. Distributors are hoarding my beer and that is just delaying getting beer back. I got more kegs back today so I am going to keg it up and only serve it here in my taproom that way I can have an eye on it if it goes bad rather than put it out for distribution. Im pretty sure its good but thats too warm for comfort.

Thx

[jebzter]

Are you mandated into the three-tier system? Sounds to me like they are trying to bury your brand, if they are hoarding all the beer but not getting empties to you.