Bottle vs. Keg on aging.

[bigken462]

Every year in May, I plan a sizable crawfish boil and shoot to have enough brew for 40-50 peeps. Because of a move late last year I was not able to do hardly any brewing and now find myself really behind on what I would like to have aging in the beer closet.

I will admit, in the past bottling was actually kinda fun. Now move forward a few years, I would rather be beat almost dead than have to screw with them each and every week leading up tot his event. Presently I only own 3 kegs. If fiances line up, I would like to purchase 6-8 kegs in the near future as the brews come up. Obviously this leads to other hardware problems, but I don't think it's nothing a manifold and a few garbage cans of ice can't fix.

I'm a lil curious when you guys consider the aging / conditioning process to to take place. Sounds silly, but is it from brew day, or would you consider it to be the day the keg is sealed or the bottle cap pressed? If let's say I need to let it age for 6-8 weeks from the brew day, then I might can do well, but if its from the time it's carbed up, then probably not.

The reason I ask is this. If I can brew a bunch now over the next 2 months, and let these sit down in the basement at 50-60* in a secondary for a month or two, I might will be able to swing getting the proper amounts of kegs to serve these up by Memorial day weekend. I typically only do 1.045-1.060 beers with 1.050 being average. Unless something changes I don't think I'll have enough to time do any lagers since it would tie up my freezer and put me even further behind schedule.

If I were to brew like mad, then keg these up 3-4 weeks out, do you think they would be drinkable? There is no way I can get what I need brewed and bottle conditioned in time for that weekend if I have to resort to bottling.

Ya can't have Cagun boiled bugs without the proper amount of suds to wash it down with. Off subject for just a second, but here is a few pics to get your taste buds going from the last one. The boil has always been a huge success. But it looks like I'm going to be limited on what I can bring to the table this year due to being behind.

Ok, back on subject, thanks for any feedback. Apologize for the rambled post, but this is what it is as 0400hrs when I'm struggling to stay awake. lol

 

[porterpounder]

Depending on the styles you're whipping up, conditioning in the keg really starts the minute it's filled up. Lighter ales will condition quicker and hoppier pales/ipas are better fresh anyhow. Using finings Biofine or gelatin really help clear a beer up quickly, which is partly why beer is conditioned. I'm comfortable serving mid-strength mildly to moderately hopped ales within 2-3 weeks of kegging without hesitation; wheat beers as soon as they carb up. It's the stouts, porters, bigger, darker beers and lagers that love that cold 8-12 weeks settle. If you get it all brewed by the end of April you should be in good shape, even if you are keg conditioning with priming sugar rather than force carbing.

 

[bigken462]

I don't typically do the heavy hopped or dark brews. Usually 30 IBU or less and nothing any darker than perhaps a Irish red I guess. Most of my friends are BMC casual drinkers. Nothing heavy really. I have plenty of bottles and might can squeeze out a few cases between now and then, but I won't lie, I look at the pile of them to be washed and I would almost rather just buy new beer than fool with them. Having that chore to do really just zaps the fun out of brewing for me.

I wouldn't mind doing a week or two of heavy brewing and just letting them sit in the carboys till the extra spending cash came my way. The worst case would be that I am not able to get them kegged in time, but then I guess that would just give us another excuse to have another boil late summer. lol

For my friends, they only see it as free mud bugs, music and beer, but for me, I see it as a beer tasting and a way to introduce new people to home brewing.

 

[IslandLizard]

Washing and filling all those bottles surely is a chore not to look forward to, again and again. Unless you get help with that whole process, keg that beer. Now cleaning and filling a keg also takes some time, but nothing like cleaning, filling and handling 2 cases of bottles.

As @porterpounder said some beers should be drunk fresh, others benefit from aging a month, or 2, so plan accordingly. Nothing wrong with filling up secondaries with those that need some aging/conditioning/lagering sit there until the beginning of May before racking to kegs you hopefully have by then.

There are some really good deals on used kegs as well as brand new ones. And always check Craigslist, although the offerings are sparse there nowadays. And you'll have those kegs forever, so you save money and time each year you use them, even if it were mostly for those events.

 

[bigken462]

Sad thing is that until recently, there was a person just north of me about a hour drive that had a business selling those for 35-40 bucks each. I kept putting it off since for the most part, I have always bottled and knew if i ever had a need i could hop in the truck and have them in no time. Now that I'm in need, can't find him posting anything on Craigslist. Shipping is going to suck. That will teach me to procrastinate.

 

[GHBWNY]

Maybe a few of your 40-50 hb-drinking peeps could give you a hand? At least with the cleaning, sanitizing, capping? You could be the in-between guy doing the filling and keeping an eye on both ends of the process at the same time. Someone hands you a clean, sanitized bottle, you fill it, hand it off to the capper. Cuts your work load by what, 75%? And gives some of your peeps a better appreciation of what you (and the beer) goes through in the homebrew process.

 

[IslandLizard]

Sad thing is that until recently, there was a person just north of me about a hour drive that had a business selling those for 35-40 bucks each. I kept putting it off since for the most part, I have always bottled and knew if i ever had a need i could hop in the truck and have them in no time. Now that I'm in need, can't find him posting anything on Craigslist. Shipping is going to suck. That will teach me to procrastinate.

Yeah, that is sad. If you still have his contact, you could try. Easy to post a kegs wanted ad, you'd never know what comes to you. But I'd stay away from (converted) pin locks and any racetrack lids, though. I've seen those come through at times.

Adventures in Homebrewing and Austin HBS, and likely others sell those fine used as well as India and China made new kegs by the 4-piece. They put them on sale from time to time, they actually were not long ago. Shipping was quite reasonable IIRC.

 

[IslandLizard]

Maybe a few of your 40-50 hb-drinking peeps could give you a hand? At least with the cleaning, sanitizing, capping? You could be the in-between guy doing the filling and keeping an eye on both ends of the process at the same time. Someone hands you a clean, sanitized bottle, you fill it, hand it off to the capper. Cuts your work load by what, 75%? And gives some of your peeps a better appreciation of what you (and the beer) goes through in the homebrew process.

^ Excellent! ^

 

[bigken462]

^ Excellent! ^

I can't say the thought has not crossed my mind. lol

 

[bigken462]

Just a lil recap to this thread. I will be kegging all this up this Saturday if Northern Brewer delivers some gas supplies. Since I made the last post on this thread over a month ago, I've picked up eight kegs and a manifold big enough so that I can carb all eight at one time.

One of these guys is a Honey Kolsch which I guess I will bottle. Since I'm not sure how the honey will change the beer, I'm not sure I want to put two Kolsch beers together on tap.

Next step is to try to score a used chest freezer to handle at least eight kegs. Sadly, I still have to buy all the beer side dispensing stuff. I dread that punch to the wallet.

My plans are to use pallets or some reclaimed barn wood to frame up around the freezer. Something like this:

Getting time to be booking some music bands. I hope the effort pays off. We'll cook up about 140lbs of mudbugs. Can't wait!