What do I do with 5 gallons of beer

I racked up my 3rd all grain batch in to a purged keg and was letting it age. The day I was going to put in my kegerator and carb I discovered my kegerator was toast. What would you do with the beer? So far the only answer I can come up with is buy a new bottling bucket and try to bottle it all. Doubt I can come up with a new kegerator anytime soon. Thanks for the help.

Why not just let it sit and age longer while you get the kegerator fixed?

Bottling does seem like the obvious solution.

When you say "anytime soon" do you mean months or weeks? If the latter, then I imagine you could just let the beer hang out for a few more weeks until you get the thing fixed.

No dude...buy a picnic tap and put the keg in a fridge if you have space. Then, when you turn enough tricks and sell enough lemonade you can buy another kegerator and go back to business as usual. Seriously though...don't bottle it all, just spend the 10 bucks or less and score yourself a picnic tap.

Or, throw a party next weekend. Put the keg in a plastic bin, surrounded with ice, and enjoy the beer with your friends. (I'm free Saturday night, but not Friday. Just FYI. )

+1 on Ace_Club!!! I've already got the kiddie pool with ice in it...Nashville isn't too far of a drive to Colorado Springs right?

Keg the beer and leave it to condition til you get a new kegorator? I mean if you don't have the money/time to replace it, then I'd bottle it so you can drink it. But if you can hold off, then just let it sit in the keg, it'll probably be the best beer you've ever had since many new keggers don't even realize they are drinking green beer, because carbing and conditioning aren't the same thing. And ALL beer can benefit from some conditioning time.

You could also opt for a chiller of some sort. Some folks even put their keg in a 10 gallon cooler with ice and drink it that way. Or you could make a picnic tap type setup, coils in ice in an insulted cooler that the beer runs through on the way to the glass.

There's a ton of options, bottling is the simplest, but if getting together the bottles and bottling stuff is also a pita, there are other options, they're not the greatest but they work.

Better send me the keg. I have a tap open.

+1 picnic tap

What's with the keggerator?

Send your beer to me.

Copper's bad to use as a quick and dirty chiller, right? He couldn't just run his beer through the inside of his wort chiller if he has one in a cooler full of ice, right? Is there a cheap stainless tubing option he can get to rig up a picnic tap setup?

Ive got a kitchen trash can wrapped in insulation and raggae colored duck tape that i fill with ice and take to parties. Originally made it when my tap handle broke and it still gets used. I agree with Ace.

Revvy said:

Copper's bad to use as a quick and dirty chiller, right? He couldn't just run his beer through the inside of his wort chiller if he has one in a cooler full of ice, right? Is there a cheap stainless tubing option he can get to rig up a picnic tap setup?

Click to expand...

Yes, I've heard the same that copper is not a good thing to use on finished beer.

This is how I get down ....

I "discovered" it when I drove my flat head screwdriver through the cooling lines, I'm still coming to terms with my ******* attack. I did consider the picnic tap on ice but wasn't sure how fast I was going to try and drink it. Part of my concern is that I am only able to keep it stored from the 68 to 72 degree storage range, I'm guessing its been in the keg 2-3 weeks and would be another 4-6 weeks before I could get a chest freezer to pop it in (with a picnic tap for now until I can spiff it all up). I'm still learning everything but my guess is this may even be an ideal scenario....

Thanks

Ideal for the beer yes, but not so ideal for you it seems.

If you have other homebrew (or commercial) to tide you over for a month or so, I vote for leaving it at roomish temp and getting all nice and melded.

yep, drink sam addams for a month or something. you can also get a keglove settup. get your keg cold with an ice bath, then put the keglove insulator with the reuseable ice wrap around your keg. keep another ice wrap handy in the freezer, every 6 hours or so, change out the ice wrap. should work alright.

bottle or age it!

arturo7 said:

+1 picnic tap

What's with the keggerator?

Send your beer to me.

Click to expand...

Ha Ha funny Haiku.
Taking your skills to the town.
We all enjoy that.

Hannable1975 said:

This is how I get down ....

Click to expand...

I see you're in central NC. That isn't a far drive from Boone. Think I might come kick it with you and those kegs for a bit...

tedclev said:

I see you're in central NC. That isn't a far drive from Boone. Think I might come kick it with you and those kegs for a bit...

Click to expand...

That was for a cookout I had a few weeks back - by the fall cook out I plan to have an 8 tap (!) keezer built...

id dump it. its probably infected.