Aging Lagers/pilsners

[sluggerdog]

After haing 6 weeks off from brewing due to a scare that I had celiacs disease. Got my results back last week and luckily found out I was only allergic to Duram Wheat (Pasta) so I can again start with the beer.. (Who could live without beer? :angry: not me)

Back to the topic, I brew mostly lagers/pilsners and they are done in the same fashion:

Brew and Ferment in primary for 8-12 days, rest for 3 days and then into a cube for 1 month to cold condition. Then once the month is up I keg and drink.

Why I raise this topic is I have just cracked open a bottle that I filled from the keg around 2 months ago. It went through the same proceedure as above however since the kegging it was bottled and it has sat warm, for the last 2 months.

The brew is so much better then when I initially kegged it 2 months ago. Totally different tastes and a lot better.

So I was thinking that maybe I should try this for my next few brews except for bottling the brew, gas the keg up and leave it out of the fridge for 2 months, then proceed to drink it.

Whould this work? Reason I ask as I have always thought that it is best to keep the brew cold the whole time...

Would love to hear others comments/thoughts/methods on lagers/pils and how to get the best out of them..

Cheers

 

[Ray_Mills]

Slugger
Its a hard question to answer.
I bottle all me Lagers after a min. of 6 weeks lagering and the bottles are a bugger to carbonate in the winter, takes 6 weeks to get it right.
Those beers are really the best and patience is the biggest problem.
I have to agree even after all the lagering if you keg it, it never seems to be right.
I dont have an answer only it all take a lot of time to get it right
Cheers
Ray

 

[dial90]

It is likely that the residual yeast that was in the brew when you bottled it has fermented out even further at the wamer temperatures making a dryer beer with a slightly different flavour.

I always store my kegs warm after cold conditioning and find that it gives the beer a better flavour, though mostly they don't last 2 months.

 

[sluggerdog]

Thanks for the replies, I think I will try CC for 4 weeks as normal, keg and gas then leave out of the fridge for 1 more month and see how that goes..