Leave keg connected?

Hi all-

I kegged an IPA I made about two weeks ago. It spent about 5 days in the primary and I syphoned it to the keg along with some priming sugar. It's been sitting in my basement for about 8 days now conditioning (about 55-62 degrees basement temperature).

Should I have left the CO2 connected in case of leaks or was it OK to disconnect it while the conditioning happens?

Also, how long should I wait before I move it to the fridge?

And most importantly, when would it be OK to give it a try!

Any info would be great!

Thanks,
-Chris

I usually don't prime my kegs with sugar, I just use the C02 to carb. But, if I were to use sugar, I would not have it connected to the bottle. So, you're fine.

I'd leave it for 3 weeks before putting it in the fridge - just like a bottle.

As far as taking a taste, I'm not sure, but I would leave it alone until it's on the C02 bottle.

at this point is probably carbonated, but you should let it go another week or two before you start drinking. give the yeast time to remove off flavors from any diacytl alcohol that may have been produced in primary.

priming int he keg means more yeast sediment to draw off before you get 'clean' glasses of beer, so when you put it in the fridge, try not to disturb it, and expect the first couple glasses to have yeast sediment.
if you force carb, you end up with a small amount of sediment in the first few ounces of beer, then the rest of the keg is pristine.

Excellent! Thanks for the replies. It's much appreciated!

C.

It wouldn't hurt to draw QA samples weekly, just don't use a growler.

I've never bottled conditioned in a keg before - just force carb.

Right before you start dispensing it, you may want to crank up pressure to around 30 psi, and fully depress the spigot for a full 2 seconds.
This will clean the bottom of your keg so you'll get no more sediment.

Hint: don't move the keg. If you do, you'll get new sediment at the dip tube again.