I've just gotten into kegging and will (hopefully) never have to go back to bottles unless I happen to want to for some special reason.
My question relates to aging in kegs -- I can't quite wrap my head around it and I'm sure somebody can give me the whys (not that it's a huge deal, as I accept what you have to do, I'm just trying to figure out the why).
If you are just going to prime with sugar and age your beer in a keg, the sugar oviously is for the carbonation but does it also help in the aging process.
I ask only because when you're bottling, you have to prime to get the beer to carbonate and I just take for granted the aging as it all happens at the same time (you wait your min 21 days and hopefully you have carbonated and fairly good tasting beer).
So the thing that I can't quite answer in my head is -- if you are not using sugar and are either force carbing or letting it just age in the keg before doing so, what is different about aging in the keg as opposed to it just sitting in the secondary for a few extra weeks? Is it the extra yeast in the secondary or something like that.
I totally accept that the beer does in fact need to age. But what I can't figure out is why it would age differently in a carboy (basically just continuing to secondary for three extra weeks) as opposed to putting it in a keg or in bottles for the three weeks.
I don't know why I care but I was just thinking about it and was hoping somebody could give me the science (or is there no difference...)?
Thx!
Jim
My question relates to aging in kegs -- I can't quite wrap my head around it and I'm sure somebody can give me the whys (not that it's a huge deal, as I accept what you have to do, I'm just trying to figure out the why).
If you are just going to prime with sugar and age your beer in a keg, the sugar oviously is for the carbonation but does it also help in the aging process.
I ask only because when you're bottling, you have to prime to get the beer to carbonate and I just take for granted the aging as it all happens at the same time (you wait your min 21 days and hopefully you have carbonated and fairly good tasting beer).
So the thing that I can't quite answer in my head is -- if you are not using sugar and are either force carbing or letting it just age in the keg before doing so, what is different about aging in the keg as opposed to it just sitting in the secondary for a few extra weeks? Is it the extra yeast in the secondary or something like that.
I totally accept that the beer does in fact need to age. But what I can't figure out is why it would age differently in a carboy (basically just continuing to secondary for three extra weeks) as opposed to putting it in a keg or in bottles for the three weeks.
I don't know why I care but I was just thinking about it and was hoping somebody could give me the science (or is there no difference...)?
Thx!
Jim