Beer keg storage

[cstjp1]

I recently bought 6 19 lt. kegs but only have enough storage in my beer fridge for 2. I was wondering if I could fill the kegs and carbonate them then keep them at room temp? If so how long will it keep?

Thanks

 

[hathro]

Should be no different to a bottle.

 

[Black n Tan]

I recently bought 6 19 lt. kegs but only have enough storage in my beer fridge for 2. I was wondering if I could fill the kegs and carbonate them then keep them at room temp? If so how long will it keep?

Thanks

That is fine. It is best to store your kegs (or bottles for that matter) in a place that doesn't get too hot. I have a hazelnut brown ale at the moment that I am happily drinking after 12 months in the keg, most of that time spent not refrigerated. Paler beers will have a shorter life but still a few months.

 

[Drew]

If you would like to store them in a fridge, I think I have some spare room in mine

I'll save some for you.

 

[thedragon]

Storing your kegs at room temp shouldn't cause any issues. Just follow your usual kegging technique, including perge-ing oxygen, and you should be fine.

My fridge also only holds two kegs. My routine is to have two kegs on tap, chilled at 4 deg inside the fridge, with a third carbonating at room temperature outside of the fridge.

I haven't noted any difference in taste between the kegs kept cold and carbonated in the fridge and kegs kept warm prior to being put in fridge and later chilled.

 

[cstjp1]

Thanks for your feedback. Will have to reduce my consumption so I can get a stockpile going

 

[Tahoose]

Just be mindful that if your naturally carbonating your keg you need to use less sugar/dextrose than bottle priming.

I think it's less than half. Google or the forum search is your friend.

 

[Pirate323i]

Hey thedragon, I see you carbonate at room temp? What pressure do you use and how long does it take? I want to do this for a party keg setup served through an icebox. Any info would be awesome, as I have been told "you have to chill to carbonate"
Cheers!

 

[MrChoat]

Hey thedragon, I see you carbonate at room temp? What pressure do you use and how long does it take? I want to do this for a party keg setup served through an icebox. Any info would be awesome, as I have been told "you have to chill to carbonate"
Cheers!

My guess is he's bulk priming using sugar, and sealing the keg up and letting it be.

What I'd do if I were gonna do that, would be to bulk prime, fill the keg, purge the headspace, then pressurise with 250kpa and leave it sit for a month. I usually give a quick tug on the pressure release every week or so to make sure kegs I've got stored at room temp are holding pressure. If they're not I'll give them another blast of co2.

IME the best way to carbonate in kegs is to force it. A lot of cornys leak and can be a pain to seal, and hitting the full keg at low temperature with high pressure and sealing the lid gets rid of most of the problem.

What I've got is two 20l cubes from a camping store, I go from primary to a cube as secondary. I let the secondary sit for a week or three at room temp, then I cold crash for a few days in the cubes.

They stack on top of each other so you can chill two brews at once, and then you may transfer them straight to the keg and force carb. Once I'm happy with the carbonation level i raise the pressure to 250kpa and move the kegs under the house to age.

So far this is the most reliable method I've found.

I haven't had any luck pushing co2 into warm beer, the lid will seal but after a few days the co2 absorbs and the if the seal goes you wind up with flat beer, that will need chilling and carbing again.

 

[manticle]

Hey thedragon, I see you carbonate at room temp? What pressure do you use and how long does it take? I want to do this for a party keg setup served through an icebox. Any info would be awesome, as I have been told "you have to chill to carbonate"
Cheers!

You don't have to chill to carbonate, it's just that co2 will be dissolved into the liquid more quickly if the beer is cold.

 

[MrChoat]

You don't have to chill to carbonate, it's just that co2 will be dissolved into the liquid more quickly if the beer is cold.

I was under the impression that less co2 will go into solution at room temp and you wind up with undercarbed beer. Guess I could be wrong but what i do works so I'll stick with it.

 

[Black n Tan]

Yes less CO2 will go into solution at a given pressure when at room temperature compared to cold. The solution is to increase the pressure. To achieve 2.5vol you need 12psi@4C, 28psi@20C and 39psi@30C. I know some people don't like the use of psi, but it illustrates the point. Use a carbonation calculator; google it. I would imagine the time to carbonate would be similar.

EDIT: typo

 

[MrChoat]

39psi seems high to me, I'd be scared of losing a tank of co2, since I went through 2.6kg in about 6 kegs. I don't know though I always force carb as its described in these forums, and took me forever to find a leaky jg coupling.

I checked out those calculator charts when I set up my system, definitely a good resource if you're new for the first few kegs, but I've found I can just wing it and get the results I like. It probably helps that I only do APAs and IPAs and they're similar.

Any who cheers for clearing that up for me, it'll no doubt become useful info in the future.