Commercial Kegged Beer Viability

[Pugalicious]

Does a commercially brewed beer (in this case, Lost Coast's Great White) need to stay refrigerated before tapping it in a kegerator? If it doesn't need to be refrigerated, how long will it be ok for at room temp? At work, I've had one out for a week at room temperature. I'll be putting it in the kegerator to tap in about another week (long story on the delay). So it will have been at room temperature for 1.3 weeks and refrigerated for another 1.3 weeks before it's actually tapped and consumed.

***Bottom line, will it be safe to drink?***

I didn't think it would be a problem but a guy at work said it's not safe. The way I look at it, kegs are almost completely air tight. There should be no bugs or other nastiness (in theory) to worry about. Isn't it essentially like leaving canned or bottled beer at room temp in the pantry? My guess is that bottled beer or certainly corked beer would leak way more air than a keg.

Thoughts from the pros? Thanks guys!

-Jason

 

[TomSD]

Shouldn't be a problem, specially if you are only talking weeks... that's nothing.

 

[Pugalicious]

Thanks for the info Tom! That's what I thought.

Anyone else have any hard data/science to prove it should be fine?

-Jason

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

Should be fine... if its not you will know it by tasting it. only way it could be an issue is if its not pasteurized, but there will be off flavors if it goes bad which is still not likely.

 

[Pugalicious]

Thanks JT. I'm guessing it's not pasteurized since I don't think most smaller craft brewers use pasteurization. I could be wrong but maybe someone else has more insight on that specifically.

 

[Hammy71]

My homebrew isn't pasterurized, so what's the difference. My kegs sit warm for weeks if not months. Besides, some distributors ship their kegs warm. When I used to get Harpoon IPA in kegs I had to let it sit in the kegger for a day to get cold. You'll be fine.

 

[Pugalicious]

For the record, it turned out fine. It was consumed earlier this week. Tasted just fine and of course no one got sick or anything crazy like that.

Also, to be safe, I called Lost Coast and ran the scenario by them as well. They said it was no problem at all. Just wanted to let you all know how it turned out. Thanks again!

-Jason