Beer last longer in a keg or bottle?

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instinct2

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Our pale ale has missed it's prime now that was bottled in the summer. Wondering if it would have lasted longer in a keg, under CO2 pressure instead of priming sugar.
 
Our pale ale has missed it's prime now that was bottled in the summer. Wondering if it would have lasted longer in a keg, under CO2 pressure instead of priming sugar.

No.

Temperature plays a huge part in aging, though! If you can keep beer cold, it slows down the aging process a lot. Beer ages faster at warmer temperatures, so for a beer that is at peak, keeping it at cellar temperatures or lower can help preserve it a bit longer.
 
Yeah, normally bottling is the way to go for aging things from what I understand. What I usually do wish pale ales and stuff that don't benefit from aging is get them in the basement when I feel like they're nearing their peak, or even right into the refrigerator. At refrigerator temps beer ages very slow in my experience.
 
If you dry hopped it, then you could switch to kegging and dry hop in keg. IME, that makes the addition last longer for your enjoyment. I still use the longer carbonation method (two weeks at serving temperature and pressure) with that though. So, by the time you start pulling pints, the dry hop addition is getting really good. I also leave the hop addition (whole hops, in a nylon mesh bag) in the keg for the duration. Give it a try sometime and see for yourself. :D

BTW, I don't put my batches to keg until they're ready to drink. So no additional time is needed for them to become great. Going to bottle/keg is purely for carbonation at that point. Since I don't bottle carbonate anymore, that means direct into keg. If there's a spot available in the brew fridge, a keg goes in there. Otherwise, they stay in the basement until a spot opens up.
 
If you put a bottle in the fridge and you had sound sanitation, it will last a really long time. I once tried a pale ale that I had brewed 1 year and 8 months prior sitting in the back of a fridge. It was glorious.
 
Golddiggie said:
If you dry hopped it, then you could switch to kegging and dry hop in keg. IME, that makes the addition last longer for your enjoyment. I still use the longer carbonation method (two weeks at serving temperature and pressure) with that though. So, by the time you start pulling pints, the dry hop addition is getting really good. I also leave the hop addition (whole hops, in a nylon mesh bag) in the keg for the duration. Give it a try sometime and see for yourself. :D

BTW, I don't put my batches to keg until they're ready to drink. So no additional time is needed for them to become great. Going to bottle/keg is purely for carbonation at that point. Since I don't bottle carbonate anymore, that means direct into keg. If there's a spot available in the brew fridge, a keg goes in there. Otherwise, they stay in the basement until a spot opens up.

Do you weigh down the bag?
 
Do you weigh down the bag?

Nope, I let them go as they wish. I sanitize the bag with a dunk into Star San solution, fill with whole/leaf hops, then put into the keg. Purge the keg headspace a few times then put it into the fridge to chill and then carbonate. Two weeks later pulling pints of greatness. :rockin: :D

BTW, I use 1oz per 3 gallon keg for this.
 
Beers have lasted and been drinkable for hundreds of years in bottles, if stored properly. Our own Mbowenz recently tried a beer that was brewed in 1852. There are still drinkable bottles brewed for Napoleon.

Charlie Papazian did an article in Zymurgy a few years back of sampling award winning homebrew going back to the first Great American Beer Festival, over 25 years worth of beers.

It all depends on how it was treated.
 
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