Bulk Aging of Beer in a Corny

Can I bulk age my beer in a corny keg as opposed to using a secondary fermenter? I think it would be cool to bulk age in the keg and actually get some carbonation that way and put'em right on tap when you are ready.

Just a thought...

Hell yes

Its the best way to do it IMNSHO

A lot of people do this. I do it with most of my beers as well. After about a month in the fermenter I transfer to a keg and hit it with some CO2 to purge the oxygen out and get a good seal. Then the keg goes back into the brew closet and usually sits for another month or so at about 65 degrees before finally putting it into the keezer and getting ready to serve.

Ditto - No breakage, no light-strike, easy to handle, they take up less space and you can naturally carbonate. What's not to like? The only, minor, downside: you'll have a little trub in the first pint or two.

david_42 said:

Ditto - No breakage, no light-strike, easy to handle, they take up less space and you can naturally carbonate. What's not to like? The only, minor, downside: you'll have a little trub in the first pint or two.

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Not if you do a keg to keg transfer prior to serving

This is how I age my big beers like Dark strong, Barley wine etc....

AWESOME!! I am so jacked that i finally switched to kegging. So if you do bulk age in the keg, do you occasionally vent C02 or allow carbonation to slowly build in there? Also, after bulk aging in the keg, do you still force carb as usuall or tone it down a bit?

If you transfer to the keg once fermentation is done there is very little CO2 coming out unless you were to add corn sugar and let it carb up like a big bottle. (which many people do).

I just hit my kegs with enough pressure to seal up, so maybe 10 psi. At room temp that isn't enough pressure to carb the beer up to the right levels, so when it goes into the fridge it just gets purged and then set to the correct pressure where it sits for another few weeks until it's ready to be served.

If I'm doing a kit that came with priming sugar, it goes in the keg. Otherwise, I just let it sit until it's time to carbonate. I've got a pressure gauge I use to check a keg before hookup and/or carbonating.

If you don't prime, you do not have to worry about excessive pressure.

I'm doing this currently with a 9.2% dark strong belgian. Although I chilled it in the keg, carbed it and then pulled it back out to sit for a month or two. Now its sealed, carbed and when ready I can just put it on tap. Plan on doing the same to a Belgian trippel soon.

babalu87 said:

Not if you do a keg to keg transfer prior to serving

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And waste all those vitamins and minerals!



GT