Aging?

[benbradford]

how does moving the beer to keg and co2 affect the aging process?

Is it better to leave on the yeast for a few more days, or is racking to keg and carbonating going to slow the aging process?

 

[sivdrinks]

Bump. Been wondering this myself. Any difference between conditioning flat in the carboy or carbed in a keg?

 

[Monstar]

I don't think it makes a difference. It seems it would be the yeast in suspension anyway that would still be working. Temperature should have a much bigger effect. I could be wrong, of course, but I know a lot of dudes here age in cornies.

 

[samc]

Since you normally chill the beer when carbing in the keg you slow down the aging process. I find that my beers hit a peak at about 8 weeks, which is usually 5 weeks in the keg at that point. Good thing about the keg is that I can open it and add hops to perk up the flavors if needed. Usually 10-14 days is how long I leave the beer in the primary prior to cold crashing.

 

[benbradford]

I have been following more of a program of 21-25 days in primary and then kegging, cold crashing, and carbing.

Here is the question I suppose:

Beer A primary for 28 days and then kegged, cold crashed, and carbed and consumed 7 days later.

Beer B primary for 14 days and the kegged, cold crashed, and carbed and consumed 21 days later.

Which beer has aged better?

 

[krenshaw]

personally i would think beer A, just because it was at fermenting temps longer and had longer contact with most likely more viable yeast.. personally i would consume 10 days after starting to carb, but that's just my 2c

 

[benbradford]

Ya, I always drink my beers earlier than I would like, but that is where demand is greater than supply. I just hate buying beer, when I could be drinking my own, even if they are a little young sometimes. In the future I will be stepping up production so that I can meet my demand better, and in a more organized fashion.

I might be outside the norm in that my wife drinks as much as me, and really enjoys all of the homebrew that i make. We can easily consume 6 drafts a day, between the two of us, and that puts me in my 200 gallon a year quota quite quickly

 

[DannPM]

Ben I think it depends on the yeast.

I racked a beer tonight to keg I brewed and pitched into 13 days ago. I used 3538 Lueven pale ale, 1.052 to fg of 1.011 in about 40 hours pitching cool with a free rise. It tasted like it was done because it was done. Try that with 1762 or 3787 and you'll either get a beer that tastes like a bad cocktail or something cloyingly sweet, respectively.

Lower gravity will age faster than higher gravity as well.

I know that is no real actual help to the op but advice is the more you brew the more intimately you know how a particular strain of yeast behaves, attenuates, flocculates, tastes and ages well beyond what the yeast websites can provide you.

 

[benbradford]

I guess that does answer the question... and I should know that until it is ready, I shouldn't move it off of the yeast, or into cold crash and carb. I was just kind of hoping to get confirmation that the cold crashing and carbing slows the aging process.

 

[DannPM]

Elevating the beer to its of the upper temp range during the end stages of fermentation and holding it there for a week or so will speed yeast "cleanup," help with attenuation, and essentially speed up the aging process. Chilling it down will slow ale yeast to dormancy, where they flocculate out much faster.

The former being more for average gravity ales. High gravity brews will still be taking months at room temps to age out well.

 

[70Cuda383]

I asked this same question a few weeks ago in the general brew forum, and seems the answer is, nobody knows for sure, but everyone thinks leaving the brew on the yeast cake longer will help flavor more than if you bottle/keg it and age longer carb'd