Keg Aging Question

[Plan9]

I want to free up a carboy, and keep aging an beer in a keg for a month or 2.
Should I fully carb it, or just hit it with a blanket of CO2?

 

[Bytor1100]

I just rack to the keg, pressurize it to serving pressure than stash it down in my basement until ready to serve.

 

[ScubaSteve]

+1, but I like to hit it with 30 PSI to make sure it all seats, then check for leaks with soapy water. I've pulled kegs out after a few months and found them with zero pressure. The beer was fine, but I sleep better knowing the keg is sealed.

 

[abracadabra]

When I'm brewing I like to do it every weekend for a period of weeks until I have a good supply built up. Plus that's a great way to reuse the yeast. So every weekend while I'm waiting for the strike water to heat up or wort to boil. I dump my primary fermenter into a cornie where it stays as a secondary/aging container.

After the wort has been in the cornie overnight I'll go and pull the pressure relief valve. I'll usually do it a couple more times over the next week whenever I'm near the fermentation closet. This accomplishes 2 things let's me know the cornie has sealed and let's any air out.

I've also done what most folk reccomend & hit it with a little CO2 then purged the keg and hit it again, or hit it, purged it and pressurize it to 30 PSI.

I like the alternative method I first mentioned better because I've often had trouble with the poppets not making a good seal after I've removed the gas connector from the post using the hit and purge method or the pump it to 30 PSI method.

I test all my cornies with compressed air while I'm cleaning and sanitizing them. I've noticed that sometimes a cornie will seal and hold at 30 PSI but if the pressure drops downs to 5 PSI or less it won't hold. So as the beer absorbs the CO2 under pressure some cornies will start to leak as the pressure drops.

So I test my cornies at 30 PSI then drop the pressure and test it again at very low pressures levels as well, fix any problem(s) and tag the cornie as sanitized. That way I know it'll hold pressure before I dump any beer into it and I can just grab a cornie marked as sanitized whenever I'm ready.

All 3 methods work just fine. It seems to me more a matter of personal preference than anything else. And even if the cornie lost all pressure the odds of your beer being spoiled are some where in the range between remote and nonexistant.

 

[david_42]

I've also had trouble with leaky poppets, so I just seat the lid and let them sit.

 

[mansf7720]

This is a bit off topic but... I am new to the kegging scene but not the brewing scene...after you have started drinking beer from your keg how long does the beer tend to last inside the keg? I am trying to gage how many kegs to buy and how many to keep in my fridge at the same time.

 

[Yooper]

This is a bit off topic but... I am new to the kegging scene but not the brewing scene...after you have started drinking beer from your keg how long does the beer tend to last inside the keg? I am trying to gage how many kegs to buy and how many to keep in my fridge at the same time.

It will be in the fridge, usually, if it's in your kegerator. I guess it would last months and months, but I usually drink them way before then. Remember, it's a sealed container in a dark cold place. I would think it would last indefinitely, unless it was infected or maybe some of the hops would lose flavor if it was a hoppy beer.

 

[Jamo99]

How long it will last depends on the beer. Think of a keg as any of your homebrew bottles sitting in your fridge. It will last as long as (probably a bit longer) than one of those bottles. Of course, I'm using last relative to it staying good and tasty. None of my beers "last" as long now that I'm kegging.