Can I keep a spare keg on hand?

Curious question, but can I brew a batch of beer, and let it sit in a spare keg until my current keg empties? Or will that produce off flavors, lose aromatics, go bad, etc? It would be sitting in my basement, maybe a few months...

Or would it be better just to wait and brew closer to when i think my current keg might be expiring?

Thanks!

 

I would say it all depends on what you will be brewing. Also, you would want to purge the oxygen out of there right after you keg it too.

If it's an IPA, Pale Ale, Hefe, etc... that are best when fresh, i would say wait.

If it's a stout, porter, barely wine, etc... that are better with age, then go for it.

This is just my two cents son what I would do if I were in your shoes. Good luck!

 

You can absolutely store beer in a keg. Just make sure it is sealed well and totally purged before you store it. Kegs are a great way to store beer. Especially if you can keep it relatively cool/cold.

 

Thanks, this would be a blueberry wheat. I usually add the extract right before kegging to help maintain the aroma...

I'm anxious to brew again but i'm wondering if it would be better fresher, hehe.

Thanks for the replies!

 

Yes. Assuming you've cleaned and sanitized that keg and purged it as much as you can of oxygen, that keg is essentially the same as a big bottle.

 

Or maybe as the pale ale winds down, i can bottle the rest from the keg, and then swap in the blueberry wheat? The pale ale should stay relatively fresh in bottles right?

 

You can definitely age beer in kegs. Keep it purged with carbon dioxide and you can keep it about as long as you want to.

 

If you don't get any oxygen into it while bottling, it should stay about as fresh in a bottle as in a keg. The bottle won't help, but it might not hurt. If you refrigerate the bottles that might give them the edge on freshness. The larger issue with pale ales and such isn't freshness; it is that the hop flavor and aroma will fade with time, no matter how it is stored.

That said, I always have five or ten kegs loaded and on standby.

 

Sounds like it's time to upgrade to a second or third tap!

 

I echo the IPA and APA fresh is best but I have had them waiting for over a month or two with no problem. My dark brews I age for sometimes over a year. My storage temp is about 40 to 50 degrees. One thing I do is, about once per month, I will give the keg a shot of CO2 at about 20 psi to insure a good seal. If it takes a lot of gas, I investigate. Lube your keg gasket every time. Never have had a problem. I will also pull a keg and tap another for a change of pace with no ill effects.

 

So I can keg a beer, purge it of O2, then leave it (with no gas connected to it) for awhile? Do you carbonate the keg first by leaving it hooked up to gas for a few days? Or just purge O2 and then let it sit on its own?