Copper Ale: Age in bottles, keg, secondary, or primary?

[wittmania]

Planning a ski trip to Colorado with some friends in mid-February. I am planning on brewing up a Copper Ale (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/copper-ale.html) as this sub-style is very popular in ski lodges in the area. Thought it would be a nice touch.

Here's my question. Many reviews I've read on that recipe say that it tastes terrible at first, but after it ages for a couple of months it ends up being a very nice crowd-pleaser, even for people who call Coors "beer."

I need to get going on this if I'm going to have enough time for it to be finished before we hit the slopes. I have several options at this point.

1. Keg it. I could have an open Corny in about 14 days, giving it about 3 months to carb up and condition.
2. Bottle it. I could have it bottled within 10 days, which would give it even more time to condition in bottles.
3. Rack it to a secondary once fermentation slows and leave it there for a couple of months or so, and then keg it, giving it another 3-4 weeks to carb and condition.
4. Leave it in the primary for about 3 months, then keg it for the last 3 weeks.

So, if you were me, how would you handle aging a brew that they say takes time to condition, but is worth the wait?

 

[nobody]

just me but i would let it set in the fermenter for a month. then i would bottle it and let it sit bottle conditioning till your trip. that is just me. i have kegged beer before and see nothing wrong with that also. the choice is up to you. i like bottles for the simple reason that you can take a few and move along and not have a 5 gallon keg with you everyplace you go.

when i get a frig for my basement i'll be kegging more, but till then i will keep on bottling. i'll still bottle alot of mine because that is what i like myself.

 

[wittmania]

Yeah, the portability is another factor. I just got my kegging stuff last week. I have a batch already kegged and could brew another batch into my second keg, carb it, and then have it sit there for a few months. I am getting a paintball conversion setup so I can be a little more portable, thinking I could take that with me on the road trip.

I suppose I could bottle it and take those with me, but there's just something cool about serving my own beer out of a keg while we sit around the cabin playing poker and smoking cigars. Bottles don't quite have the same "coolness" factor.

 

[WrongCoastBrewery]

If you have the kegging setup, do that. Then you can bottle with the various homemade bottlefiller ideas on this site. Many people like to keg condition and then force carb as well. If you are going to bottle, use the 22s or maybe some growlers with swing tops.

 

[nobody]

the keg does say alot when everybody is pumping out a brew doesn't it!! the last one i kegged was a wheat beer last summer at a yardsale we had. i kep the keg in a medium sized trash can full of ice. me and two friends floated a 5 gallon keg pretty fast. it was hot hot outside and cold beer was great to have on hand.

you could bottle a few and keg the rest if you think that might help you out. i've done that a few times. i have one keg that holds it's pressure when i keg mine. the other two bleed off. i guess i need to put some new seals on them. the sad thing is i got them brand new and they won't hold pressure like the old 5 gallon mountain dew keg does!!!! it's full of pressurized star san right now and hasn't been on a tank since last summer. i can still pump star san out of it right now!!!!

 

[wittmania]

So... do you condition and then carb or carb and then condition? In other words, will it condition better if you hold off on the CO2 for awhile?

Thanks for the input, guys. Love all the help I get on this board.

 

[NewrBrwr]

Just threw back a Midwest copper ale an hour ago....like all beers it gets better with age. This was my 3rd brew, I did one week primary one secondary and then bottled. (I now am doing longer primaries after discovering this board!) It tasted OK, not "terrible" after 2 weeks in the bottle but it had a strong yeast bite but now after 2 months in the bottle the bite has subsided and its a great simple brew that I enjoy.