Beer Storage

[Crusty]

Hi all,
My second AG is now in primary & looking as though it will be a cracker, just like my first one, a JSGA clone. My OG was a little higher this time round coming in at around 1.058 @ 20 litres. I added some fresh water to get the OG to 1.047, now @ 23 litres, which is where I wanted my starting OG to be. If all goes well it should drop out at 1.012 giving me approx 4.69%. I hit temps pretty well second time round also & managed a 76% efficiency this time. One temp which I am having trouble with is my mash out. I add mash out water at 100 deg c & can't get it to sit for 10 mins at 76-77 deg c. I only got it to 74.3 & shut the lid for 10 mins.
My question is this,
Can I make a few batches & store them in my Corny kegs at room temp until I want to gas them. I planned on siphoning from secondary to keg, gas & burp & leave in fridge to get temp down to 4 deg C. I will then filter from keg to keg, regas at 100kpa, burp & leave in the shed at room temp till I'm ready to consume.
Cheers,
Crusty

 

[buttersd70]

crusty, if they're going to be at room temp anyway, and considering that you will be doing a keg to keg transfer, why not naturally prime, to get it carbonated and save the gas? Then you can just transfer, or transfer/filter to the dispensing keg after chilling?
Just a thought.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks butters,
I may look at doing it that way.
I have enough room in the kegerator for 4 kegs but I want to do a bit of brewing & have some spares of my 4 favourites ready to go. I am looking at probably 8 kegs in my rotation as well as a keg for filtering. 1 on tap 1 ready to go etc.
I wanted to go through the motions of having the stored beer already filtered on hand & when I want it, chill overnight & force carb it & it's ready to go.
Cheers,
Crusty

 

[buttersd70]

You might remember a post by zwickel where he talked about how he does his keg transfers with the gas posts connected (ie a closed transfer). There was a post in there asking ross about putting a filter in the middle.......well I was talking to ross the other day (in relation to polyclar), and he mentioned that (when he's not low on stock) he naturally primes in one keg, then chills it, then does the transfer to the other keg with the filter in the middle.

I was talking to muckey on the phone the other night, and discussing how much co2 is used for varous things we do, purging, carbing, dispensing, etc. We ran through some numbers, and the short story is, that doing a transfer in this method after naturally priming uses about 40% the amount of gas as force carbing. The same thing can be done without a filter, if the dip tube in the 'carb keg' is slightly up so all the yeasties can drop clear prior to transferring. Either way, being the cheap ******* that I am, this is how I plan on doing things (as soon as I catch up....I'm short on full kegs atm, so have to force carb to get ahead of the game again.)

 

[muckey]

Thats Ok butters, let me know if I can help with transferring any of your beer for storage in future, glad to help. :icon_drunk:

If I remeber correctly we didn't use the zwickel method saturday though.

the phone conversation also went on to cover the fact that the gas used during the transfer doesn't have to be completely wasted by venting to atmosphere straight away either, can be used for purging other kegs etc as well so the overall method gives you an excellent clear beer for very little cost and a small investment of time.

(I'm a cheap sod too)

 

[buttersd70]

Muckey! stop it! we're talking about storing in KEGS, not temporary storage in your bladder.

 

[Screwtop]

Hi all,
My second AG is now in primary & looking as though it will be a cracker, just like my first one, a JSGA clone. My OG was a little higher this time round coming in at around 1.058 @ 20 litres. I added some fresh water to get the OG to 1.047, now @ 23 litres, which is where I wanted my starting OG to be. If all goes well it should drop out at 1.012 giving me approx 4.69%. I hit temps pretty well second time round also & managed a 76% efficiency this time. One temp which I am having trouble with is my mash out. I add mash out water at 100 deg c & can't get it to sit for 10 mins at 76-77 deg c. I only got it to 74.3 & shut the lid for 10 mins.
My question is this,
Can I make a few batches & store them in my Corny kegs at room temp until I want to gas them. I planned on siphoning from secondary to keg, gas & burp & leave in fridge to get temp down to 4 deg C. I will then filter from keg to keg, regas at 100kpa, burp & leave in the shed at room temp till I'm ready to consume.
Cheers,
Crusty

I drop temp in primary for 2 days then gelatin fine, gravity filter to keg 2 days later with a little CO2 on top. Storing at ambient works fine. Then you can chill force carb and serve.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks for the input guys.
I think I will get a few more kegs & filter then store at ambient till i'm ready to force carb & consume. I am still coming to terms with just how fast we can consume a 19 litre keg. Rather frightening.
Anyone have some ideas about getting my mash temp up to sit at 76-78 deg. I am mashing in with approx 75deg water & mashtun stabilises at 66deg & only loses 0.5 deg at most during the hour. I am mashing in with boiling water but falling a little short of required mash in temp.
Maybe I have to mash in with another 3-4 litres of boiling water & adjust my sparge litreage to compensate?
Cheers,
Crusty

 

[buttersd70]

If the volume of water you are using needs to be at 100c in order to hit temp, you will need to change your volume so that the temp required is <100. This is because 100 is right on the state change temp for water, ie where it turns to steam. As soon as you start running that water, you will get an immediate drop in temp. The closer to 100 the water is, the quicker the temperature will fluctuate, so adjust your volume so that you can strike it at 95-97 to achieve your target. An extra litre should be ample.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks again butters,
I will try that temp range next time with an extra litre of water & see what temp I hit.
Regards,
Crusty

 

[Screwtop]

Maybe I have to mash in with another 3-4 litres of boiling water & adjust my sparge litreage to compensate?

Pretty much answered your own question there Crusty, before HERMS I always set the temp for about 95C in beersmith to get the volume but then used boiling water because the temp drops during transfer.

 

[buttersd70]

No worries crusty, but just check the volumes, the litre I stated was off the top of my head, and I forget sometimes that not everyone plays with as small a grain bill as me.