How soon do you keg your med grav beers?

I've got a 1.060 brown ale that's 5 days into fermentation and is actually almost done, as I can hardly see any bubbles coming out any more (pitched a very fresh, healthy 1L starter), and I'm wondering how soon I can put it in the keg.

I'm not interested in necessarily drinking it sooner rather than later, but I'm curious as to how long I can wait before putting it in the keg. 2 wks? 3? I figure between 2 and 3, at which point I can get it cold and carbed, ready to drink within 3-4 days of carbing.

I've only got 1 keg under my belt so far (an IPA) and I gave it 3 wks before kegging. Seemed to be best tasting at about week 4, while still in the keg (it clarified a bunch, of course).

Nevermind the "i keg it when my hydro reading shows it's fermented", I'm just talking realistically here, assuming that ferm is done.

I usually leave everything in the primary for 3 weeks, then keg. This gives plenty of time to ensure fermentation is done and also plenty of time for the yeast to do their clean up thing. I use the 'set it and forget it method', so I carb for at least another 3 weeks before I drink. So, realistically, I'm usually at least 6 weeks from grain to glass.

For something in that range, my method is usually to give them about 3 weeks in the carboy, keg, chill overnight, crank the PSI to 30 for 24 hours, then let it sit at serving pressure for about a week before I really start pouring it. I find them to usually peak around 5-7 weeks with any hop aroma starting to fade after that.

For something of medium gravity that doesn't get dry-hopped, I usually start cold crashing around day 10-11, and get it into the kegs by about day 14.

I'm with krazydave. But I just pour a few ounces every week or so until I think it's ready. Don't rush it. But medium gravity is about three weeks until I keg and then a week or two aging in the keg, on the co2, until it is ready.

NWEagle said:

I'm with krazydave. But I just pour a few ounces every week or so until I think it's ready. Don't rush it. But medium gravity is about three weeks until I keg and then a week or two aging in the keg, on the co2, until it is ready.

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That's way easier said than done when you've got cold beer on tap. What am I supposed to do, go buy beer?

Anyways, I'm gonna opt to wait til about 2.5 wks in to keg some of these. I have to use my keezer as my ferm chamber, and I need to get my remaining 3 carboys full of fermenting beer, so that affects cold crashing a good bit. Gotta have a nice rampup into the college football season and a few seasonals in between (pumpkin, mole porter, etc)

Too bad the first pour won't be ready til after the first kickoffs.

I leave average gravity ales in temp controlled primary for 7-14 days, rotate it out and let it condition for another 7-14 days, then keg and force carb at serving pressure for at least 14 more days.

That's at least ideally when I have a good pipeline going. I didn't brew for a while in April/May, and was rushing beers through in less than 4 weeks!