Coopers Cerveza Kit Question

Hello to all. I am new to homebrew and have started with the Coopers Cerveza kit. I thought it would be simple and good for the summer here in new england. I followed the directions whith the exception of bottling. I have a kegerator (chest freezer with digital controller) and a 5gall cornie keg. I have planned to keg this brew and only bottle the remaining gallon. When I opened the primary to rack it into the keg it smelled and tasted a bit sour, but still like beer. There was no indication in the primary of infection. I have done some reading about flavors and I think this may be young beer. It sat in the primary for 6 days @ 80'F OG 1040 FG 1010. I racked it into the keg and let it sit another week at room temp. I put it in the kegerator to chill yesterday and now I fear that may be a mistake. I am wondering if I have put the brew to a grinding halt and it will not age / condition? Can I take it out of the kegerator (36'F) and try condition the beer? I was also wondering if room temp of (80'F) would result in an internal temp of much higher during primary fermentation wich may have produced the flavor. Should I still follow the same time required for bottling even though I am not priming but kegging? Thank you for your patience (I have tried to read as much as possible before asking) .

reddog83 (has to do with NASCAR not the beer)

That fermentation temp is a bit high and probably did contribute to the off-flavor.
Did you prime the keg with sugar? Since you're kegging, priming is not really needed because you can force-carbonate it simply by putting it under pressure. The beer will get better with age, but it doesn't need the yeast to do so. If you had primed the beer with sugar, bottled it and then stuck it in the fridge, then yes, it would take a really long time to condition/carbonate.
If you did prime the keg with the amount of sugar needed for bottling, you'll have fizzy beer (okay, but still high for a cerveza) priming kegs requires about half of the amount of sugar. What you can do is bleed the pressure off a bit every few hours until it maintains 10-12psi with the help of your regulator.

Brew on brotha!

Thank you for your quick reply. I did not prime the keg with sugar. I plan to force carbonate (either shake method or letting sit wit Co2 pressure). Can I carbonate it now (at 36'F) and let it condition? In the future should I rack to a secondary then to the keg? Would that be required?

You've done nothing wrong, don't worry. It sometimes smells a bit funky after a week - you're probably smelling yeast.

Put it on pressure now and chill the keg, then try your first sample in a couple of weeks.

Racking to secondary has the advantage of taking a large portion of the trub off the beer and giving the beer more time to clear. Plus, the amount of time spent in the secondary is pretty forgiving so it's a great tool to use if you are busy and will have to "work in" a time to bottle (or keg). For any light beer, I'd recommend racking to secondary in order to give you a more sparkling clear final product. On the other hand, if you were brewing a cloudy wheat or a dark stout then you could get away with bottling earlier.
Also, in the future look at the ideal fermentation temp range for the yeast you are using. Typically for an ale this is around 68 - 72 deg F; lagers much cooler in the 40's - 50's deg F. Any temp outside of this range will change the way that the yeast ferment sugar into alcohol and will create byproducts (diacetyls, esters, etc.) that give off-flavors. If you are having trouble finding a room with the correct ambient temp you can place the carboy in a plastic tub filled with water, then drape a light towel or t-shirt around the carboy and into the water--in essence an evaporative cooler (works best in very dry climates). If you still aren't at the goal temp you can add a milk jug of ice (fill a milk jug with water and place in freezer) and set this in the plastic tub of water along with the carboy. Then just check in from time to time and replace the ice jug as needed.
Hope this helps.

Marc.

Thank you all for your help. I will watch my temps on the next batch. Thinking about building the son of a fermentation chiller.