Storing full keg after rack?

[Jeff20578]

What high temps can a keg tolerate for 1+ month? I’m looking to brew and carb the keg but won’t have room in my fridge for a bit.

 

[BrewSomeMore]

The keg beer can take higher temps and will effect the beer according to style. If your storing an IPA for example it will probably have more effect(less hop flavor/oxidation) than say a brown/amber ale after a month.

 

[tracer bullet]

^^^ Yep. Depends on the beer, depends on how good of a job you do kegging it, and so on.

Imperial Stout = might be good for it
NEIPA = good luck

 

[Jeff20578]

^^^ Yep. Depends on the beer, depends on how good of a job you do kegging it, and so on.

Imperial Stout = might be good for it
NEIPA = good luck

It’ll most likely be an American style ipa. So I assume storing it around 55° is not ideal?

 

[BrewSomeMore]

55 should be ok. 70+ not so much.

 

[Beermeister32]

You will be fine. Remember most bottled beer is conditioned at room temperature for a similar time period.

You could naturally carbonate that keg with 4-4.3 oz of corn sugar and it would be carbed and ready to go for you.

 

[tracer bullet]

It’ll most likely be an American style ipa. So I assume storing it around 55° is not ideal?

Again I'll say it's also got a lot to do with how you package it. The storage, or the temp, alone, isn't a problem. It's kind of a total scenario thing. Chemical reactions decrease at cold temps and increase at higher temps. Commercial beer stores OK for a while partly because they do a great job packaging it.

Do you purge kegs, do closed transfers, and so on? Or do you open the top of the keg and let the beer drain into it out of a spigot? If your methods are more like the first scenario you will get better results after storage.

Also, generally it's not that it'll spoil or anything like that, it's that you can lose all your hop flavors. It might start off as a great IPA, and a month later just be fizzy bitter yellow stuff and kind of disappointing.

 

[Immocles]

You will be fine. Remember most bottled beer is conditioned at room temperature for a similar time period.

You could naturally carbonate that keg with 4-4.3 oz of corn sugar and it would be carbed and ready to go for you.

I'm just about to start my kegging career and have considered keg priming for certain occasions. Mostly, I'm limited on fridge space and getting tank refills in my area is kind of a pain in the neck. Have you keg primed much? I'm worried about the sentiment at the bottom of the keg ruining several pints of a smaller 2.5G keg. But for as cool as my basement stays during the winter, I like the idea of priming lagers this way and letting them condition without hooking them to gas.

 

[Beermeister32]

I usually keg prime. I have 5 kegs on tap currently and two waiting their turn. Typically they will carb up in 3 weeks or so at room temperature, then into the refrigerator. I also add ascorbic acid at fill time and purge CO2 for 15 cycles.

I let them lager at 34F, then add one of the kegs to the rotation when another keg kicks. I also inject the keg with gelatin when the beer gets cold, 34F. That’s also my pouring temperature. Lagering for most types is 90 days, you can test drink them along the way. Fun to see how they improve over that time period.

Pours are absolutely crystal clear without sediment. They sit at 34F for months on keg, you can fill a pint without a trace of sediment. Your first pour might have a bit of gelatin/sediment/murk but you just toss the first half glass. At that point the keg runs sparkling crystal clear!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I usually keg prime. I have 5 kegs on tap currently and two waiting their turn. Typically they will carb up in 3 weeks or so at room temperature, then into the refrigerator. I also add ascorbic acid at fill time and purge CO2 for 15 cycles.

I let them lager at 34F, then add one of the kegs to the rotation when another keg kicks. I also inject the keg with gelatin when the beer gets cold, 34F. That’s also my pouring temperature. Lagering for most types is 90 days, you can test drink them along the way. Fun to see how they improve over that time period.

Pours are absolutely crystal clear without sediment. They sit at 34F for months on keg, you can fill a pint without a trace of sediment. Your first pour might have a bit of gelatin/sediment/murk but you just toss the first half glass. At that point the keg runs sparkling crystal clear!

What amount of ascorbic acid do you add to a five gallon keg at fill time? Also how do you inject the gelatin after the chill down? Thanks, GREAT tips!

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Lagering for most types is 90 days, you can test drink them along the way. Fun to see how they improve over that time period.

Too much testing leaves one with an empty keg. lol

 

[Beermeister32]

What amount of ascorbic acid do you add to a five gallon keg at fill time? Also how do you inject the gelatin after the chill down? Thanks, GREAT tips!

I use one teaspoon AA dissolved into a quarter cup of pre-boiled but cooled water. That goes in at keg transfer time.

Later on I inject the keg. Gelatin works best on cold beer. Dissolve a teaspoon of gelatin and let it bloom in a cup for 10 minutes. Use you microwave to bump up temps to 165F to pateurize and get ready. Inject the keg when cold. My injector came from the BBQ section at Lowes.

 

[TkmLinus]

I prime my kegs with 50% of the recommended sugar for the batch size, purge with CO2, and store at room temperature for 1-2 months with no bad effects. I'm in the south so room temperature can get up to the mid to high 70's. Hope that helps!