Is my beer worth kegging?

[txstatebobcat26]

All,

I brewed an ale about 7 months ago. One of the most active fermentations I have felt with and at the time I didn't have a way to regulate fermentation temperature. I got busy, didn't want to bottle, didn't have enough bottles, went out of town for work, blah blah blah.

I still have the beer in the fermentation bucket and haven't opened it since i pitched yeast. I have since worked on getting keeping equipment and a fermentation chamber. I just got all my parts i needed for my Kezzer and it is up and running.

I have everything I need to keg this beer but is it worth it? Is there a chance this beer will still be drinkable?

let me know halls thoughts. thanks

 

[fuelish]

Open the bucket and give it a sniff, then take a gravity sample to test/taste.....HOPEfully you've kept the airlock filled with some form of liquid all this time. If it tastes good, keg it and enjoy. If not, keg it and serve to those who aren't true friends

 

[fuelish]

Open the bucket and give it a sniff, then take a gravity sample to test/taste.....HOPEfully you've kept the airlock filled with some form of liquid all this time. If it tastes good, keg it and enjoy. If not, keg it and serve to those who aren't true friends

....or maybe turn it into malt vinegar and gift it

 

[revco]

I don't see why not, so long as the beer hasn't been oxidized or come into nasties. If it's a hoppy beer, you may notice a bit of lackluster hop performance, but I still would think it'd be worth the shot. If it were me, I'd keg it anyway and see what happens. If it's terrible, you're only out a brief keg cleaning...certainly better than dumping what could be an OK beer!

 

[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

Taste it, then keg. 7 months of neglect is a long time, Airlocks topped up? Give it a shot.

 

[ol-hazza]

Its worth kegging and carbonating, as they said you will only waste a bit of time if its bad.

I remember reading that CO2 escapes through the liquid in the airlock and air comes in though, so its likely that its aerated. you never Know your luck though

 

[Matterpro]

Even if it's gone south, it'll be good practice on that Keezer!

 

[wardens355]

Taste it. Then report back.

 

[aryoung1980]

even if it's gone south, it'll be good practice on that keezer!

+1

 

[fuelish]

I remember reading that CO2 escapes through the liquid in the airlock and air comes in though, so its likely that its aerated. you never Know your luck though

Correct in that CO2 escapes through the airlock....only way for O2 to enter is if the airlock fluid was allowed to evaporate to the point where free exchange of air is possible, or if there was a big change of temp or air pressure (storm fronts movin' through or something) and suckback occurrs....if the OP kept airlocks topped up and minimized pulling the lid off to muck with it (sounds like they very well did), I'd guess oxidation is highly unlukely.....ymmv

 

[ol-hazza]

Correct in that CO2 escapes through the airlock....only way for O2 to enter is if the airlock fluid was allowed to evaporate to the point where free exchange of air is possible, or if there was a big change of temp or air pressure (storm fronts movin' through or something) and suckback occurrs....if the OP kept airlocks topped up and minimized pulling the lid off to muck with it (sounds like they very well did), I'd guess oxidation is highly unlukely.....ymmv

I will have a look for the forum it came from, but they were talking about the gases reaching equilibrium across the airlock, not it being due to pressure and suck backs. Well thats how I understood it anyway. I'm no scientist so will try and find it for you.

 

[ol-hazza]

One last side note that isn't really on topic, but perhaps interesting anyway. If you have a beer in a carboy that is done actively fermenting, the CO2 concentration in the beer and in the headspace will eventually equilibrate to the concentration of CO2 in the area it's sitting in. For all intents and purposes, it's the concentration of earth's atmosphere (.0387% by volume). This sort of blows people's minds because you think, how can CO2 get past the water in the airlock? It diffuses into the water, then it diffuses out on the other side. Oxygen and nitrogen do the same thing in the opposite direction. The water just slows it down.

As I said I'm no scientist but this seems believable to me

 

[hunter_le five]

The beer's ruined. I'll come 'round and take it off your hands and properly dispose of it for you, assuming you're in the San Marcos area? I'll bring an empty keg - er, I mean, liquid waste transportation vessel - over so you can keep your fermenter.

Seriously though, if it smells okay and tastes okay (don't be afraid to try a sample, it won't kill you), then it's fine. Keg that sucker.

 

[ballsy]

I agree with kegging it either way as a good test/experience for getting familiar with the steps, especially with the carbing (experimenting b/w rapid force carb vs slow carb,etc...). Yoopers house pale ale was first batch I ever kegged, and best brew I had done up till then...something went wrong when force carbing and I opened my keezer to find about 1 gallon at least, in the bottom of it :smack: one of the fittings was tiny bit loose so the liquid gold trickled slowly down the keg for about 24hrs...now I pay extra careful attention when tightening everything down! Would have rather that happen on an old/less than desirable batch for sure.

 

[fuelish]

As I said I'm no scientist but this seems believable to me

Possible, maybe (?) on a long forgoten batch such as yours, but...doesn't really apply to most "normal" beers...Next time - keg your beer when it's done fermenting, problem solved, yes??? I refuse to believe that over seven months you did not have a few hours to dedicate to bottling/keggging this brew. If your personal life is that busy, maybe you'd be better served by just buying beer??? Just a thought

 

[Yooper]

Correct in that CO2 escapes through the airlock....only way for O2 to enter is if the airlock fluid was allowed to evaporate to the point where free exchange of air is possible, or if there was a big change of temp or air pressure (storm fronts movin' through or something) and suckback occurrs....if the OP kept airlocks topped up and minimized pulling the lid off to muck with it (sounds like they very well did), I'd guess oxidation is highly unlukely.....ymmv

While I think the beer might be fine-

o2 can easily go through the airlock in the liquid (and through the material of the airlock itself) as the ideal gas law shows. Take a look at this little write up of different airlocks and bungs/closures that is part of a study: http://www.mocon.com/pdf/optech/Closures - Oxygen Passage Study.pdf

In any case, the beer might be fine. And there may be no need for the above link- but whenever anybody says that oxygen can't permeate the water (or whatever) in the airlock and that headspace doesn't matter, I think it's important to remember the laws of physics that we learned back in high school and show a recent study of the actual amount of oxygen that does indeed come through the airlock.

 

[fuelish]

While I think the beer might be fine-

o2 can easily go through the airlock in the liquid (and through the material of the airlock itself) as the ideal gas law shows. Take a look at this little write up of different airlocks and bungs/closures that is part of a study: http://www.mocon.com/pdf/optech/Closures - Oxygen Passage Study.pdf

In any case, the beer might be fine. And there may be no need for the above link- but whenever anybody says that oxygen can't permeate the water (or whatever) in the airlock and that headspace doesn't matter, I think it's important to remember the laws of physics that we learned back in high school and show a recent study of the actual amount of oxygen that does indeed come through the airlock.

Interesting article, I gotta say...definitely not gonna argue with ya, yooper, as you know a lot more than I do on this stuff, but I was just speaking in terms of realistically, for an average batch of homebrew, I doubt it's of significance for non--commercial beers.... Riding the mead train, these days, think I have the patience thing under control ...perhaps I should rethink my airlocks....hmmmm

 

[Yooper]

Interesting article, I gotta say...definitely not gonna argue with ya, yooper, as you know a lot more than I do on this stuff, but I was just speaking in terms of realistically, for an average batch of homebrew, I doubt it's of significance for non--commercial beers.... Riding the mead train, these days, think I have the patience thing under control ...perhaps I should rethink my airlocks....hmmmm

Yes, for beer I wouldn't give it a single thought as very few times do we age beer long term in a carboy. But I have an apple wine that has been in the carboy for over a year- and that means that headspace would be very critical.

 

[fuelish]

But I have an apple wine that has been in the carboy for over a year- and that means that headspace would be very critical.

A year, wow...yeah, I'd agree on headspace...at this point do you have a solid bung???...or is it airlocked??? Oh, btw, I used to be a MI "flatlander," living just outside of Detroit City...made a lot of pretty good beer up there, with an occasional mead...having moved south to the land where they panic over a chance of snowflurries, been concentrating on meads...I've considered all of 'em so far to be just fine, but my wife keeps pressuring me to do more "lighter, champagney" carbed meads. I do accomodate her, but, sometimes a person has to do what they're gonna do, and an oaked ginger habanero mead would be better served still

 

[ol-hazza]

All,

I brewed an ale about 7 months ago. One of the most active fermentations I have felt with and at the time I didn't have a way to regulate fermentation temperature. I got busy, didn't want to bottle, didn't have enough bottles, went out of town for work, blah blah blah.

I still have the beer in the fermentation bucket and haven't opened it since i pitched yeast. I have since worked on getting keeping equipment and a fermentation chamber. I just got all my parts i needed for my Kezzer and it is up and running.

I have everything I need to keg this beer but is it worth it? Is there a chance this beer will still be drinkable?

let me know halls thoughts. thanks

So...... have you tried it yet?

 

[txstatebobcat26]

Man... I decided to dump it... Didn't smell right... Thanks for checking up. I'll be starting a thread about my new keezer and legging my first beer soon! Happy holiday ale. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1419390264.697287.jpg

 

[ol-hazza]

No worries, I find quite often things get debated but the final result doesn't get announced which makes it all a bit too academic for my liking.

Not to mention its a slow christmas eve at work....

Happy holidays to you too!!

 

[hunter_le five]

Man... I decided to dump it....]

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!? Dumping beer without a proper liquid waste transportation vessel??? Fool! I tried to help you!

I mean, best of luck in all your future endeavors.

 

[txstatebobcat26]

Sorry bud. Won't happen again. 😏

 

[djfriesen]

I wad going to recommend at least tasting it before you risk contaminating good beer lines with infected beer. If it tasted off, I think you made the right choice.