Filled Homebrew kegs - Storing and temp fluctuations

[Brian66]

I have a small chest freezer and most of the time I keep the temp at 38F.

Question 1 - If I have a keg of beer in the freezer at 38F and want to raise the temperature to 50F either to soft crash a beer in a fermenter or to ferment a lager, will this hurt the beer that is already kegged in the freezer? I'm talking somewhere between 2-6 days then I'll lower back to 38F.

Question 2 - If I keg a beer and don't have room in the chest freezer, is it OK to store in a basement that stays around 65F? Does it matter if that stored keg is carbonated or not?

 

[Hammy71]

I store my kegs in my basement all the time. I even carb them at basement temps (60-65F). It's ok.... A keg is just a large bottle

 

[DosGatosBrewing]

Q1 - No
Q2 - Maybe. I usually hit them with 20 psi or so of CO2, to dilute any oxygen in the headspace

 

[Brian66]

Perfect - thanks for the replies!

 

[Bobby_M]

There's nothing wrong with temp fluctuations on kegged beer other than the fact that you really can't dispense a normally carbed beer at anything over 50 without foam problems. The fluctuation isn't really an issue for the beer except that the longer a beer spends on the warmer side, the faster staling processes go. If you're not trying to keep it for months, probably not an issue.

 

[Brian66]

There's nothing wrong with temp fluctuations on kegged beer other than the fact that you really can't dispense a normally carbed beer at anything over 50 without foam problems. The fluctuation isn't really an issue for the beer except that the longer a beer spends on the warmer side, the faster staling processes go. If you're not trying to keep it for months, probably not an issue.

Thanks! This is good to know!

 

[Broken Crow]

Thanks @Brian66 for this thread... I've been 'upping my game' lately to do what many on here do; Have more than just 2 kegs of beer on tap at one time... For me, that means leaving filled kegs sitting at best in my basement which stays around 68° year round. I'm on the verge of doing that as soon as I can ensure sanitary oxygen-free tranfers. Let's see if we can keep this thread running until many more weigh in with their experiences.