Can you store beer in keg?

[HGBPro]

I have been bottleing by brews so far. I am going to be making a kegerator in the next two weeks. (or as soon as I get it back from the custom paint shop) with that being said, I also have a cream ale that has been sitting in the primary for almost 4 weeks now. It stopped fermenting 2 weeks ago. I dont want to bottle it b/c I wanna keg it. Can i go ahead and rack it into a keg now and then carb it when I get it in the fridge or should I just let it sit in the primary and continue to clear? any oponions/advice is greatly appreciated. I should also note this is my first kegging experience. Thanks & merry xmas!

 

[brettg20]

I would either leave it in the primary or put it in a secondary if you have another carboy.

 

[HGBPro]

I would either leave it in the primary or put it in a secondary if you have another carboy.

if I put it in a secondary how do I get the air out since it is no longer fermenting?

 

[calebawilson]

Hit it with some co2 and vent the air out of the top. Your going to want to do that anyways so you get a good seal on your keg

 

[msa8967]

I suggest leaving the beer in your primary instead of racking to a secondary. If you want to improve the clarity for your cream ale you might think about doing a cold crash for several days or even a week. This involves storing the beer in an environmant that is somewhere between 40-55 F. This will help any remaining yeast drop out of suspension and improve the clarity. Also, I have read that cold beer will absorb CO2 better than room temp beer. I leave much of my beer now in the garage which stays in the 40F range for a week prior to kegging. Do be carefull to make sure that the beer does not freeze though. Not sure about your part of the country but that may not be much of a problem.

 

[HGBPro]

thanks Mick, Im not that worried about clarity, so I'm just gonna leave it in the primary till my kegerator is ready. Thanks!

 

[msa8967]

One thing I like about the cold crashing in my primary prior to kegging is that I get less "gunk" transfered to the keg during the process. This makes for easier cleaning of the lines and keg when you are done. You don't need any of the remaining yeast in suspension since your are kegging and you can just set this on your back porch for 24 hours prior to kegging to get this result. The reason I am mentioning this is that I did not know this when I started kegging six months ago and the first few pints of cream ale drawn from the tap were full of small "floaties" and thus I dumped the first few pints. Now that I cold crash prior to keg transfer this is not such a problem and the beer is better suited to absorb the CO2 more effectively.

 

[92greenyj]

i typically carb my beers right when they get kegged and before they go into the kegerator. I keep a small 5lb CO2 tank in my garage with a regulator and 4 lines coming off of it (I also use this tank to run my 4 tap jockey box when i travel). So I keg and carb in the garage. then put it into the kegerator when I have the room for it and or the time to do it.

 

[Yooper]

I don't have room in my kegerator right now, so I racked a beer into the keg to wait its turn.

When you think about it, a keg is just a big bottle. So, sure, you can rack it to the keg.

 

[rexbanner]

I've stored beer in kegs for months. Like others mentioned, just open the vent to let out the O2 in the headspace, and flush with a little CO2.

 

[msa8967]

I don't have room in my kegerator right now, so I racked a beer into the keg to wait its turn.

When you think about it, a keg is just a big bottle. So, sure, you can rack it to the keg.

So how long have you found that you can successfully store kegged beer at temps of 66-68 F provide the O2 has been vented and the keg properly sealed? We are having a baby in late October and I would like to fill all of my kegs by then but I cannot store them all in my keezer. Would 4-6 months be a reasonable expectation for the amount of time to store 5-6% ABV beers in a keg at 66-68 F?

 

[nickmv]

You can store it for however long you could store in a carboy. As Yooper mentioned, treat a keg like it's a big bottle.

For storage times, that all depends on several factors:

1) beer style
2) alcohol %
3) Hoppiness

So I could in effect have a 12-15% coffee imperial stout aging for a year in the keg if I wanted.