Process question

Hey everybody, I'm pretty new to kegging (enjoying my first pints now). This may be a real dumb question, so bear with me...

I've always heard that the first couple pints are all the sediment and yeast, so just pour them out and you'll get clear beer. I racked an amber ale over into a room temperature keg, put it in the kegerator, hooked the gas up at ~12 psi, and waited a week. The carbonation and head are good, but it's still cloudy and a little yeasty.

Should I have let it chill down to serving temp for 24-48 hours before putting the gas on, or do I just need to wait another week or two?

Thoughts from the ninja keggers?

Thanks in advance...

i don't worry about it. most european beers are served pretty yeasty, yeast is vitamin d complex (good for you), therefore yeasty beer is a good dose of vitamins

Sounds like you did every thing right, maybe just had a little more yeast still in suspension in this batch. Pull another pint or two and see if it clears up. Also, if you can avoid it, try to avoid bumping the keg, sometimes you can stir up additional stuff on the bottom. Otherwise, give it a taste and see how it tastes! If its too yeasty to drink, wait a little longer. If it tastes like beer, I know I've had a few that got a pretty good chill haze going and look like they're full of yeast, but really its just proteins floating around that don't taste like anything.

Did you cold crash the amber before you kegged it? That makes a world of difference.

Do you think you are seeing yeast, or chill haze? Chill haze will fall out of suspension in a few weeks. If you shake the keg much, it will reappear.

For my Amber Ale, I cold crash the crap out of it, keg it, then let it age in the keg at room temperature for about a month. Then, into the kegerator on 12psi CO2 for a couple of weeks. After that, it just keeps getting better.

Kirks, thanks for chiming in - that was exactly what I was wondering. I did not cold crash it before I hooked up the gas, and I was wondering after the fact if I should have.

How long do you usually cold crash for before carbing up a keg?

Pour them out?!?!?!?!?!? Afraid of a little yeast?

It really helps to put relatively clear beer in the keg to begin with. Long fermentation achieves that.

I can watch tv though a pint of my ale. No cold crashing, gelatin or anything. A little irish moss on brew day and a month in Primary does the trick for me.

threeeight said:

Kirks, thanks for chiming in - that was exactly what I was wondering. I did not cold crash it before I hooked up the gas, and I was wondering after the fact if I should have.

How long do you usually cold crash for before carbing up a keg?

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It depends on the beer. For ales, the yeast tends to fall out quicker. Just watch the fermenter, and keg when the yeast is mostly in the cake.

I usually give it at least three days. For a couple of lagers I'm cold crashing now, I'm giving them a week.