Aging in a keg

I have an Amber Ale that is ready to be kegged. I am new to this and the previous batches have gone straight into a refrigerator, force carbonated, and consumption begun a few days later.

This keg I have some time to age it more. So what is the process as far as force carbonating etc. It is about 60 degrees where it is stored. So do I keep it connected to co2? Level of Co2 to maintain pressure?

If you’ve got a couple weeks, you could add priming sugar and let the beer carbonate in the keg. Youll want to use a little less priming sugar than you would if you were bottling.

It doesn't matter. Give it blast of co2 to seat the lid, but you can age it on the gas, off of the gas, prime it first, etc. It really doesn't make a bit of difference.

I have a spare tank and regulator, so I can have a beer carb up at room temperature if I want (but I rarely use it!).

What if I don't want to use priming sugar. Can I put the beer in the keg with no pressure? Do I need to keep a minimal amount of pressure on it?

I have a spare regulator and tank as well so I can do it either way. It will just be easier if I can just shoot it up once and put it in the corner and forget about it for a month.

NickN said:

What if I don't want to use priming sugar. Can I put the beer in the keg with no pressure? Do I need to keep a minimal amount of pressure on it?

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As long as you seal (and purge) the keg, you can let it sit for as long as you want.

NickN said:

I have a spare regulator and tank as well so I can do it either way. It will just be easier if I can just shoot it up once and put it in the corner and forget about it for a month.

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I have a set of kegs in the basement connected up to a couple of manifolds, carbonating off of one of my spare CO2 regulators and tanks. I want these carbonated ahead of time so that when I put them into the brew fridge, at most, they'll need to chill and maybe get up to the final CO2 volume target. I would just set yours into the coolest part of where you live, figure out the pressure level you need at that temperature and let it sit there (on the CO2 feed).

NickN said:

What if I don't want to use priming sugar. Can I put the beer in the keg with no pressure? Do I need to keep a minimal amount of pressure on it?

Click to expand...

If you use priming sugar, use about half as you would to bottle a 5gal batch, and then use some CO2 to displace the oxygen, then seat the lid with a burst of gas, I use 12 psi when doing this.