Kegging and Young Beer

I just kegged a batch of Irish ale (this is my first time kegging). Considering that I don't have to wait as long for the beer to carbonate, does the beer stay "young" for as long? Should I still plan to wait 2 to 3 weeks to drink it?

If you're doing the set it and forget it method, it will still take about 2 weeks to stabilize the carbonation. You can do other methods to carbonate faster, just remember that carbonation and conditioning are separate functions. You could have the beer carbonated tomorrow, but the conditioning of the beer takes time. The Irish red I brewed this fall was quite popular - it was a sad day when the keg kicked. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I did mine!

I typically don't move the beer to serving keg until it's otherwise ready to go to glass. Then two weeks (or more) at serving pressure, and temperature, has it carbonated and ready. Do a quick look at the posts from people kegging (a lot of them for the first time) that have seriously over carbonated the brew. While you can correct it with kegging, it doesn't change the fact that you did so. The majority of the time people post about kegging issues from using the burst/rapid carbonation method (and not waiting for it to equalize, which can take a week or more).

What those guys above said. It sucks to keg a beer, carb via CO2, and start drinking it too young. Only to realize the last 4 glasses of beer you drink out of the keg are the best ones because the beer has been conditioned.

You still gotta wait the 2 to 3 weeks in the keg to get good beer.

Gary

GASoline71 said:

What those guys above said. It sucks to keg a beer, carb via CO2, and start drinking it too young. Only to realize the last 4 glasses of beer you drink out of the keg are the best ones because the beer has been conditioned.

You still gotta wait the 2 to 3 weeks in the keg to get good beer.

Gary

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I just leave it in the primary longer.

Things dont go into my kegs unless they are ready to be drank. I dont shake force carb, but i typically set to 30PSI for 24-48 hours then down to serving pressure for a few days.