When To Keg

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mike

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Hi Guys,

Im a new guy here and was wondering if any one had any suggestions to my brewing questions.

I have been kegging my beer for some time now and beleive im making a good drop.however im always interested in improving my kegging methods .

at the moment i keg when fermatation has finished.burp the keg and leave it for a week then carbonate. I want to have a nice brew come christmas so i brewed a morgans amber ale with 1.5 kilo LME about 6 weeks ago.at the moment it is in the keg in my house.I don't want to drink untill christmas so im wondering would it mature better in the fridge or out ? Im thinking how bottled beer matures better at room temp so i'll pop it in the fridge say 4 weeks before carbonating. Is that the normal proceadure ??

Any help would be fantasic
 
Hi Mike,

Welcome to AHB.

The way I keg (and that isn't necessarily the right way either) is when my beer is finished in secondary I keg it and burp it.
Then the next day I gas it up.
When it is gassed I usually have a couple of samples then put it in another fridge for a couple of weeks until its turn in the keg rotation cycle comes up.
For lagers I have already cold conditioned so they are ready straight away anyway.
For ales I find an extra week or two makes them nicer.

Basically it is what ever works for you.

Beers,
Doc
 
gday mike
welcome to the site of avid mad brewers.
personally the best thing ive done with kegging is from primary fermentation rack to secondary fermentation.dry hop if/as required and when fermentation has levelled out by your fg readings rack to a cube/jerry can and cold condition in your fridge for at least 2 weeks.this will drop heaps of yeast out of your beer resulting in a very clean/clear beer.you then rack to keg and gas as required.with the cc cube coming out of the fridge straight into your keg the gas is absorbed more readily.
people on this site do it many different ways but the way i do it works for me.we are all open to suggestions to improve our beer.
hope this helps

cheers
big d B)
 
Thanks Guys for all the info..

so does any one beleive that leaving your keg at room temp is any benfit ?

And how about if i leave the keg in the fridge without carbonating ? would it mature better if i carbonated it and left it for a few months ??

does carbonating mature beer at all ??????
 
mike
ive only ever got 2 kegs in the fridge the other little 18 only gets used on the odd occasion.ive read elsewhere that kegs can be filled burped and left at room temp for quite a reasonable time until you are ready to put in fridge and gas.i quess room temp may be the big variable here as it varies all over oz.probably not a very good idea to do this in summer.unless your like me and live in a company house with supplied power and aircond.constant 25-26 degrees
anyway by memory the site posting i read reckons the beer does mature quite well.
give it a go and see what you think.
if your happy post the results and let us all know.
cheers
big d B)
 
Mike,

I have done this before with some of my kegs.

You can add 100 gms of sugar into the keg prior to filling.
Shake up the wort and let stand for as long as you want to at room temp.
You will need to vent the pressure every week.

This will naturally condition and gass your beer.
Some drawbacks:
This leaves some yeast sediment in the keg bottom.
First 2 or 3 beers poured are full of yeast
Can take a cm off the beer outlet tube to stop this.
Can also use co2 to push the beer thru a cartridge filter into another keg prior to drinking.

Some Canberra Brewers have had great success with this method.
 
big_d: do you work for a mining company - just out of interest :)
 
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