Best practice for ageing

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rgarry

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I just brewed a triple and want to let it age for 6 months or so. In the past I have aged all my bigger beers in bottles. Anyway, have this one in the primary for 5 wks which is pretty standard for me. Should I bottle, leave in primary, transfer to keg and let age uncarbed (already have 6 beers on keg and have no room in frig but can leave in fermentation chamber) or carb it up and pull out of frig and let it sit. In the end there might not be a Hugh difference but figured I would see what you guys/gals are doing.
 
my long age brews go in bottles. my quick to drink generally go in kegs. I've bulk aged bigger brews for months after racking to another carboy before bottling with no problems.
 
I question whether there is one "best" method for this, but here's what I do, which is pretty conventional, I think.

1. I bottle in 9" longnecks. No kegs, etc.

2. The beer stays upstairs for two weeks in totes, where it's a bit warmer, closer to 70F. The covered totes are nice for bottling and carrying around, and in case there's an.....event.....which there has never been.

3. At the end of two weeks, I sample a bottle to make sure that conditioning is well advanced. It always is. I then move the beer to the basement, which is around 60F year-round.

4. After two weeks in the basement (except for really big beers, which I usually bulk age in a carboy anyhow) most of the beers are ready to drink.

This procedure works well enough after 5 years of homebrewing I've never seen any reason to change.
 
So aging in the keg. Should it be carbed or not? Just enough to keep sealed? Letting an imperial stout sit and I'm unsure. Sorry to hijack thread.
 
A lot of it depends on the beer and what you have available. I've done all 3, except I carb the keg and let it age instead of doing it uncarb'd.

In my house a Tripel goes pretty fast when it's on tap, so I don't bother bottling. A barleywine would be another story. I would bottle those because I could do subsequent tastings over the years.

If you do decide to bottle, I will give you one huge piece of advice. DO NOT BE LAZY! LABEL THE BOTTLES! I was convinced that I would be able to remember which box or bottle type had what beer...then years later I'm looking at it... "This could either be that really good beer I made or that other one..."
 
So aging in the keg. Should it be carbed or not? Just enough to keep sealed? Letting an imperial stout sit and I'm unsure. Sorry to hijack thread.

Carbonation, or lack of, doesn't impact aging. Either way is fine. You could even add priming sugar and let it carb up while sitting instead of force carbing.
 
If you do decide to bottle, I will give you one huge piece of advice. DO NOT BE LAZY! LABEL THE BOTTLES! I was convinced that I would be able to remember which box or bottle type had what beer...then years later I'm looking at it... "This could either be that really good beer I made or that other one..."

I had that problem just the other night. I got in the crawl space under the stairs, grabbed some bottles and began pouring for folks. All I could say was "I'm not sure what this is, but I'm guessing it's gonna be good".
 
I just find that I can dial in the carbonation so well on a keg. I always find it hit or miss on bottles, especially with larger size bottle. Think in the end I will bottle them. I hear you guys about labeling them. I hate about 8 cases laid out and my father in law decided to organize the garage for me. Needless to say, I never know what I'm getting. Had family over for Mother's Day and it was an IPA, punk in ale, Irish red and Belgian. It would have been nice to have more consistency. I now label bottle caps.
 
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