Kegged Homebrew and BMC longevity

How come a keg that has bud light or coors start to go bad after a month but a kegged homebrew can last up to a year?

does it have to do with the beer being pastuerized?

yellowthunda said:

How come a keg that has bud light or coors start to go bad after a month...

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Do either start off as good?

hahaha what i meant to say is why do they start to taste worser than before

Who says BMC only lasts a month?

yellowthunda said:

hahaha what i meant to say is why do they start to taste worser than before

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I've never heard that before. Why would they taste worse after a month? The beer will stay perfectly fine in a keg, especially in a temperature controlled place.

I get what he's asking. Remember a while back budweiser was doing this marketing campaign for "day old fresh beer" where they would deliver one day old beer to bars to show people how much better it was fresh. Also all those BMC beers only have a shelf life of I think 100 days - that's bottles though, I'm not sure about kegs.

MN_Jay said:

I get what he's asking. Remember a while back budweiser was doing this marketing campaign for "day old fresh beer" where they would deliver one day old beer to bars to show people how much better it was fresh.

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I've never seen it.

Also all those BMC beers only have a shelf life of I think 100 days - that's bottles though, I'm not sure about kegs.

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It will last forever in a keg when kept in the proper conditions.

Nothing to stabilize BMC... poorly carbonated = easy oxidation
low alcohol content = ease of infection
no tannin or substance = not stabilized and can't endure any heat fluctuations

ajbram said:

Nothing to stabilize BMC... poorly carbonated = easy oxidation
low alcohol content = ease of infection
no tannin or substance = not stabilized and can't endure any heat fluctuations

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What are you talking about?

I agree it will last forever in a properly kept keg.... However I have had kegs of BMC that taste like ass in a short time (more ass-y than they originally did). However, there are some characteristics of ****ty beers that allow them to become more ****ty more quickly than good beers. Just my $.02.

ajbram said:

Just my $.02.

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Yup, that's what it is.

I think we need to define a few terms here...

Bad = undrinkable/nasty

Out of prime = when the beer is no longer at it's best flavor.

Keg, bottle, can there is no difference. Beer will go out of prime at different rates.

American MACRO lagers have a very short prime drinkible timeframe while most home brewed ale has a much longer prime because they are brewed very differently.

Zamial said:

I think we need to define a few terms here...

Bad = undrinkable/nasty

Out of prime = when the beer is no longer at it's best flavor.

Keg, bottle, can there is no difference. Beer will go out of prime at different rates.

American MACRO lagers have a very short prime drinkible timeframe while most home brewed ale has a much longer prime because they are brewed very differently.

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Yeah, what you said...

i'm still curious how are they brewed differently? why wouldn't they brew it so it stays "in prime" longer?

Maybe he's talking about a hand pumped keg, like at a keg party? That would introduce o2 & lead to rapid deterioration.

When I purchased a kegerator kit for my frige about 15 years ago I was told that domestic beers have a shelf life of about 6 weeks. That was never an issue on MOST of the kegs through but there were maybe 2 or 3 over the years that lasted longer than that. I can confirm that it does go bad even under CO2. Not sure why, but it does.

The answer is simple.

Most commercial beers are more chemical than living organizim. They strip out ALL the yeast and pasteurize the beer (in most cases). They are forced to use artificial preservatives and such. This is also the leading reason for hangovers when drinking commercial beers. When you add all this together it destroys the beer's flavor once it stabilizes.

Homebrew is MUCH closer to what the monks of old would have been drinking. It is alive, full of vitamins, minerals and protein...aka nutritious! The yeast in our beer will actually overdose you on B vitamins which are one of the best anti-hangover vitamins around.

In the case of Bud, "beech wood aged" means fermented fast and ran over beech wood to quickly simulate aged beer. This means that by the time it "stabilizes" it has gone out of "prime"...aka the beer just tastes like #@$&%. Bud needs to be drank as fast as possible. FWIW I am not trying to single out Bud but it is a great example.

If memory serves me correctly it was actually Sam Adams that started the "born on date" because they did not want a customer to buy something that was super old and think they made bad beer. BMC saw this as a way to push for "freshness" because their beer NEEDS to be drank ASAP.

I rarely pop open a bottle anymore as the taps are so convenient As a result, when people bring bottles over, then tend to "age" for a while before they get drunk. Occasionally massed produced beer is brought. After many months the beer is still fine.

This leads me to think that maybe it is not the beer in the keg, but dirty beer lines that are the actual culprit. It is much easier to detect a dirty beer line with a light lager, than with a tongue splitting IPA or Imperial stout.

logdrum said:

Maybe he's talking about a hand pumped keg, like at a keg party? That would introduce o2 & lead to rapid deterioration.

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+1, came here to say this.

Zamial said:

In the case of Bud, "beech wood aged" means fermented fast and ran over beech wood to quickly simulate aged beer. This means that by the time it "stabilizes" it has gone out of "prime"...aka the beer just tastes like #@$&%. Bud needs to be drank as fast as possible. FWIW I am not trying to single out Bud but it is a great example..

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This thread is AWESOME!!!

Zamail, watched a program (history/discovery channel type) that was all about brewing, from home to the big guys. Showed exactly what AB does to 'beechwood age' their beer. Basically, the short time it's in the bright tanks, it's on beechwood shavings (like really large shavings). They say that it gives the yeast a bed to floc into and helps the brew mature more quickly. I'm not sure if the idea is to actually impart a beechwood character into the beer (if it is, they fail), but more to aid in maturation. Pretty cool actually, they even do it w/ Bud Light.
But yeah, those beers are stripped of nature and have additives in them to help preserve them, thus the short shelf life. Homebrew, being unfiltered (most of the time), is alive, and continues to be alive throughout it's life. So, it tends to stay fresh, longer. Also, you'd be hard pressed to drink enough homebrew to get a hangover because of the B vit's in the yeast.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

This thread is AWESOME!!!

Zamail, watched a program (history/discovery channel type) that was all about brewing, from home to the big guys. Showed exactly what AB does to 'beechwood age' their beer. Basically, the short time it's in the bright tanks, it's on beechwood shavings (like really large shavings). They say that it gives the yeast a bed to floc into and helps the brew mature more quickly. I'm not sure if the idea is to actually impart a beechwood character into the beer (if it is, they fail), but more to aid in maturation. Pretty cool actually, they even do it w/ Bud Light...

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My understanding is that the beechwood staves/shavings are only intended to create a greater surface area for yeast flocculation -- the increased surface area means more beer in contact with yeast, meaning a faster "clean up" period. The beechwood itself has "the snot steamed out of it," as I heard once (maybe from Jamil) and imparts no actual flavour whatsoever -- it's merely a convenient medium for the use. I've often wondered about stainless steel barstock tossed in the bottom of the fermentor doing the same thing...

Geordan said:

My understanding is that the beechwood staves/shavings are only intended to create a greater surface area for yeast flocculation -- the increased surface area means more beer in contact with yeast, meaning a faster "clean up" period. The beechwood itself has "the snot steamed out of it," as I heard once (maybe from Jamil) and imparts no actual flavour whatsoever -- it's merely a convenient medium for the use. I've often wondered about stainless steel barstock tossed in the bottom of the fermentor doing the same thing...

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That's pretty much what I gathered. It allows the beer less time in the bright tank.

That's a pretty interesting bit of info.

I'm not buying the whole "it's stripped of nature" stuff. What preservatives does Budweiser use?

I'd guess it has more to do with style and brewing techniques than anything else. And although I think bud does taste better in the first month or so, it has a long period after that when it tastes just barely less good. I'm not one to gag at the thought of drinking a Budweiser.

I dunno about BMC kegs, though I find it funny that some homebrewers will say their beer tastes best after its been sitting in a keg for a few months, like this is normal. Damn, If I had to wait 3 months before my beer started tasting good, I'd probably be doing a different hobby.

I get the wood chips to surface area deal. The way I understand it is that Bud goes from grain to bottle in 8 days. (I may be off but regardless it is a ridiculously fast turn around for the product.) I can not think of many homebrewers that can push out a lager that fast but I may be mistaken...

Also, I do not remember a show or something that talked about this. I was repeating info I believe I heard on here, mixed with personal observations. So if there is a show please, do tell...

So based on the above, I assume that after pouring a homebrew into a glass, I should give the yeast a swirl and drink as a supplement?

dnslater said:

So based on the above, I assume that after pouring a homebrew into a glass, I should give the yeast a swirl and drink as a supplement?

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You can but there is plenty left in suspension for me.