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mick

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Hey guys,

I am fairly new to kegging ( about ten brews )

I was led to beleive that keg beer still needs to age before carbonating like a bottle does.

Some people say that the carbonating is instant aging ?

Usally i will leave my brew in the primary for 10 days than rack to the keg, chill it overnight then gas it for 30 hrs or so.

I want to have a special all malt beer for X mas and was thinking of kegging it now and storing for a few mths before carbonating.

Will this age the beer like in a bottle ? or beeter off CC for that same peorid ?

Is carbonating istant aging ??

I guess that the keg is just a big bottle and it is better off out of the fridge for as long as possible ?

Cheers
 
I tend to gas the keg up, then leave it for a few days. Seems to need a few days to be at its best.

If you want to, just draw a jug of beer right after gassing up.

JM
 
Mick

I rack to the keg, gas and leave in the fridge to CC for a month (if it lasts that long)
I always leave my kegs in the keg fridge unless I absolutely have to leave it out at room temp. I have found when using hops with unhopped malt that the flavour improves substantially after about a month CCing. If you really want to compare try 2 of the same brew, leave one at room temp and one to CC.

Hoops
 
mick

I usually rack to secondary and dry hop - if needed 99% of brews are.
Then rack to keg after2-4 weeks in secondary or to cold condotioning cube for CCing.
Once in the keg and gassed/rocked for 10mins - it stays in the CC fridge until one of the three kegs in the keg fridge is empty.
Therefore it will CC in the keg for upto a month.

The beer does change flavour in the keg as hoops points out.
 
My standard procedure here is to rack to a keg straight from primary ( usually after around two weeks). Then I leave the keg at room temp until fully fermented out. I check this by pulling the pressure relief valve ever day or so and see if there's still CO2 being produced. Then its into the fridge until needed...

Asher for now...
 
And one more opinion just for good measure:

I leave it in primary for about 5-6 days (until fermentation is complete)
Rack to secodnary for about 2-3 weeks. Harvest yeast cake if necessary.
After secondary, I put it in CC for about another 2-3 weeks.
After CCing, I send her into the keg, force carbonate and then plunder it a few hours after gassing. It always does improve after a week or so in the keg as hoops said.

I know this seems like a lot of messing about, too much racking and so forth, but I have found that this produces consistently high quality and tasty beers. (Keep in mind here that these have all been kits, with one fresh wort kit. Imagine how good this will be with AG beers)
 
Depends with me;

If it's a low grav or average grav session beer. I just primary for 1 week. Crash cool for another week at 0-2c still in the primary fermenter and then just rack to the keg, carbonate then serve after two weeks in the keg.

Don't bother with a secondary fermenter the beer doesn't last long enough for adverse effects. I've just got about 10mm cut off the bottom of the dip tube in the keg so the crap just stays there.

Higher strength beers usually get the standard primary fermentation then I just rack to a keg for secondary fermentation anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months (depending on the beer). Then just rack under cO2 pressure to a serving keg. I've got a jumper line that's about 1 metre of beer line with a black beer disconnect on either end.

If you're going to secondary in the keg for any given time before carbonating make sure that there's always some top pressure on the beer.

Warren -
 
hehehhe I tried secondarying in keg
most all glasses had yeast in it.

Rather than cutting dip tube, a lot just bend it--cutting is kinda final.

I have 2 kegs here for bigD's visit, hope the beers come out alright, lots of dryhops in those kegs!

Sampled a tiny bit of the IPA: unbloodyreal! Though only stream of milky froth coming out the beer gun, but that should clear up. Other keg is a RIS. Both beers aged in the kegs for 8-10 months

Jovial Monk
 
thanks guys,

I will leave out of fridge for as long as possible to age.

If it's in the fridge in the keg i will be to tempted to drink it !!
 
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