When kegging do you do a conditioning time like bottling?

[Rev2010]

I'm looking into getting a kegerator and have posted in the past mentioning the info you see almost everywhere advertising, "Move to kegging and enjoy your beer only 2-3 days later instead of the 3 week time for bottle carbing" spiel and was told before that it's not really true. So my question is this... if beer not only carbonates in bottles over three weeks but also conditions/cleans up then what do you do when kegging? Can you really keg a beer after say 3 weeks in the fermenter, or say two weeks for a hefe, and then drink it after only a few days? If so, is the taste still not matured? If it's really too soon then what do you guys do... do you leave the beer in the primary another week, or several, or do you keg it and leave it at room temperature for a week or several? Or is there something else? I'm quite curious.


Rev.

 

[Stand]

I would imagine that the reactivation of the yeast resets the life cycle of the yeast and makes it take a little longer to clean up when bottled, but that doesn't mean your beer won't taste green if you keg it. I would guess it cleans up faster, but good things still require us to wait.

 

[isurf]

No, thats why you keg.

 

[Perch06]

Look around and you will find a lot of differing opinions on this topic. My personal experience is that you can get drinkable beer faster while kegging but whether kegging or bottling the beer seems to peek around the same time (maybe a slight advantage to kegging but not a ton). Obviously this is going to vary significantly by fermentation profile, beer type, and recipe. A simple pale ale can be quite tasty and downright good within a week of kegging while the bottled version will require another couple weeks.

 

[Rev2010]

No, thats why you keg.

So the only reason, in your opinion, is to get to drinking the beer quicker? I think my question is a reasonable one as there are other benefits to kegging, such as not having to sanitize a bunch of bottles, not having to rinse them after each use, and not having to use priming sugar.


Rev.

 

[Spintab]

I calculated recently that I've bottled something like 1500 bottles of beer. Even the thought of bottling makes me tired. I finally, after begging and pleading, got the go from SWMBO to get a kegging system and I feel a weight lifted even before the system has arrived. This, personally, is the biggest reason to move to kegging. The time and effort savings. I don't mind waiting the same duration as bottling as long as I don't have to bottle.

The other thing is some beers take a reaaaallly long time to carbonate in bottles. I did a big 10% strawberry rhubarb that was in bottles for over four months with not a single bubble. While it may have just taken another month or required more sugar, I ended up dumping about half the batch. In a keg, that would have been ready to drink when I was ready to drink it.

 

[Yooper]

So the only reason, in your opinion, is to get to drinking the beer quicker? I think my question is a reasonable one as there are other benefits to kegging, such as not having to sanitize a bunch of bottles, not having to rinse them after each use, and not having to use priming sugar.


Rev.

Yep, all those reasons. And more. I can pour 4 ounces, or 16 ounces, whatever I want, without worrying about opening a whole bottle of beer. I might drink 8 ounces of pale ale, 10 ounces of IPA, and then top it off with 2 ounces of stout. No problem, and it's awesome. The beer tastes great, too!

A well made beer should be fit to be consumed when it is carbonated, so if you make the beer properly (proper pitching temps, ferment temps, good ingredients, etc) then it will ready very soon.

I have one recipe, an oatmeal stout, that is best at about 5-6 weeks. The rest of my beers (primarily IPAs, APAs, American ambers and the like) are ready by three weeks.

 

[copyright1997]

Also you can use the keg as the place where you would normally do a secondary or when you want to free up a primary (assuming FG has been reached) to do another batch.

 

[Spintab]

Also you can use the keg as the place where you would normally do a secondary or when you want to free up a primary (assuming FG has been reached) to do another batch.

Yeah, I was thinking about this earlier. Aside from some extra yeast at the bottom, what would be the difference between going to a secondary for a couple weeks and going straight to a keg just not hitting it with pressure for a couple weeks? I'm about to keg for the first time in a couple weeks, kinda new to doing it but everyone I brew with does.

 

[copyright1997]

Yeah, I was thinking about this earlier. Aside from some extra yeast at the bottom, what would be the difference between going to a secondary for a couple weeks and going straight to a keg just not hitting it with pressure for a couple weeks? I'm about to keg for the first time in a couple weeks, kinda new to doing it but everyone I brew with does.

Going to a keg for a couple of weeks is my normal mode of operation. I actually *do* hit it with pressure...actually I do a pressure/vent/pressure/vent/pressure to remove the oxygen and have enough pressure to ensure a good seal. Then I let it sit, or use it to dry hop or whatever.

This allows me to be more flexible about when I rack from the primary and when it eventually gets put in the keg-refrigerator for serving. I rack from the primary sometime after the fermentation is complete (usually when I need the primary for another batch), and I put the keg into the serving fridge after all dry hoping is done and more importantly when there is room. (My serving fridge can hold 3 ball-lock kegs plus my co2 but it is a very, very tight fit.) Otherwise, it sits in the sanitized keg sealed and "conditions".

Edit: Getting a good pipeline going makes it much easier to do it this way as you are no longer in a rush to drink it, mostly because you have no place to chill it! (I just ordered a new freezer that I intend to use as a keezer so I can have 6-8 kegs on tap in total.)