best beer when kegs are just about empty?

[Brewsta]

g'day everyone,

it seems to me that my beers are at their best when my kegs are just about to run out? say within the last six glasses before empty.

I've always suspected that this is due to ageing, but now i'm not so sure? could it be due to settlement of different flavours having different SG? i.e. the heavy stuff on the bottom is the first to come out & the lightest is the last. (i want the flavour of those last six glasses, they are that bloody good!)

It's not just my imagination either, I've compared kegs of the same brew that are near empty & just cracked with my mates & they are of the same opinion, they are clearer, have less twang & a lot smoother to drink then the freshly cracked keg.

is this a filtering issue? could it be settled out quicker? or is it just part & parcel of the ageing process?

FYI

i brew two can brews with the addition of steeped grains (same brand, type, qty & process every time)

usually coopers pale ale or heritage lager with coopers light liquid malt extract,

caramalt in the ales & carapils in the lagers about 500gm in each, steeped for 30min @ 68 deg c, then boiled for 15min

i Always use Safale US05 yeast for the ales and saflager 34/70 for the lagers

all my ingredients are fresh & i keep them in a temperature controlled fridge / freezer at about 4 deg c or less.

I brew in temperature control 18 deg c for the ales & 13 for the lagers, ales for about 2-3 weeks, lagers for about 4-5 weeks.

I diacetyl rest the lagers for 24hrs at 21 deg c then cold condition at 4 deg c for about 5 days before racking.

once racked into kegs i leave both types of brews at 4 or 5 deg c for about 4-5 days before carbonating.

I will often leave them for 2-4 weeks before tasting and its usually about the 4 week mark when i think they are ok to drink.


My brews are pretty consistent in flavour as i try to keep everything the same, they are just so much better at the end of the keg.

lI'd love to know your thoughts & if anyone else has noticed this.
Thanks!

 

[Judanero]

I've definitely noticed it but haven't investigated further. If you wanted to test it you could brew a double batch- ferment it all at once and fill two kegs.

Drink from one but don't touch the other, when the drinking keg is nearly finished sample from the untouched keg and do they taste the same?

Sorry not really a help, my kegs usually start getting sampled after about two days.. and last between 2-4 weeks depending on how good it is.

 

[manticle]

Less particulate matter certainly helps. Yeast in suspension has a flavour I don't enjoy.

They have a peak point though. Beer also gets old.

 

[Tahoose]

Sounds like you hav ethe variables under control.

It just comes down to conditioning, I have found this also with a number of different ales and lagers. Time and patience equals superior beer.

 

[Dave70]

I've heard of this in relation to 'real ale' - as in the flavors changing over time, but I tend to believe its an aging thing with kegs.
On average It takes me about five weeks to drain a keg of garden variety ale. Ad to that another week cold crashing and its no surprise the last third of the keg has settled out nicely.
On the other hand, cant say the same for beers I've bottled from the same batch - excluding stouts or Belgians. Keep em cold, keep em fresh.

I might ad also, this can actually work against wheats. Done a few hefes that have wound up crystals and thus lost much of their character from to long a stay in the keg. Defiantly best drunk fresh and rapidly.

 

[yum beer]

Once my bottled brews are finished carbing up they live in a temp controlled upright freezer at 2c.
As I don't drink as much or often as some and my penchant for a variety of brews I generally have about 10-12 different beers in there at a time.
This means that some brews last 8-9 months before getting finished.
Almost every brew benefits from this long lagering, they get clearer, a more compact yeast cake and they hold most of their hop flavours( minor loses yes but nothing major till they get to 4-5 months) which is why hoppy brews do get drunk a little more often when fresh and young.
I don't care if my beers are cloudy, clear or somewhere in between but a crisp Czech lager with 6 months conditioning that you can read a book through is a glorious thing.

 

[pcmfisher]

You have a clearer beer because more of the particulates have settled out.

I think the large volume of co2 on top of a nearly empty keg also cleans up a lot of flavours ie kit twang and other undesirables.

But the co2 also scrubs out hop flavour and aroma if you ask me. This is probably the only thing I don't like about keg beer.

 

[Brewsta]

thanks for your comments guy's, it's lead me to some other search ideas on this site & the web.

one in particular (which is way too much for my wee little brain especially when it's soaked in alcohol) is about tannins, protein & polyphenols. If i had to describe the flavours i am experiencing when first cracking a keg it would be slightly syrupy & and looks like tea. (which makes me think of tannins? and maybe the other stuff…more reading or me required.

question is…have you guy's ever used Polyclar & tried filtering? & do you think it would be of benefit to me?

Unfortunately i consume more than i can brew at the moment, so looking to speed up the condition process if you know what mean.

 

[Moad]

I might ad also, this can actually work against wheats. Done a few hefes that have wound up crystals and thus lost much of their character from to long a stay in the keg. Defiantly best drunk fresh and rapidly.

Agreed, I am going to start bottling hefes rather than kegging. That way I can roll it around before serving and resuspend the yeast for that delicious hefe flavour

 

[Boozed]

Try chopping off the bottom 3 cm off your keg dip tube. As your beer continues to settle during lagering you are constantly drawing yeast etc from the bottom of the keg. Alternatively, before kegging, try cold crashing, filtering, fining and or being careful not to transfer too much yeast/trube from the fermenter. Use a racking cane rather than the fermenter tap to help keep the crap at the bottom of your fermenter and not in your keg!

 

[RdeVjun]

I concur, the best beer poured from any keg is usually the last, or rather the penultimate as the last is often a glass of froth and muck from it blowing. Trimming the beer out dip tube, filtering and clarifying agents such as polyclar or gelatine will all help, however the Cask Widge should help you start serving even sooner as, depending on the style, you may even start pouring as soon as its carbonated (at serving pressure that is).
However, a period of lagering for the styles that benefit from it is largely unavoidable if you want the delicate flavours to really shine.