Dancing the 1 fridge Two Step with one bier to ferment and one to serve

[Froyd]

I'm planning a lager for next weekend. I have a kegerator with Inkbird temp controller that can serve as a fermentation chamber for both fermentation and lagering, but I've not managed to evict the current tenant, a delitious hazelnut porter that I'm trying to keep around as long as I can.

My kegerator can hold two cornys or the 7 gallon fermenter by itself.

My plan is to unhook the porter, store it in a cool corner of my basement, and put the fermenter with the lager in the kegerator for stage 1 of fermentation. When the fermenter comes out of the kegerator for the diacetyl rest, I can put the Porter back in. After the the fermenter rests a room temp a couple of days, I would transfer the lager into a second corny and place into the fridge next to the corny with the porter. The lagering temp would not be ideal for serving a porter, but I could live with it (of course I would compensate the CO2 pressure for the lower temps).

I'm pretty confident the keg with the porter holds pressure well. I replaced all the o-rings recently.

Do you think the plan to unhook the porter and let it sit untapped for a few weeks while the lager ferments could ruin my beer? Maybe unhooking half-used kegs and storing them outside the kegerator/keezer is commonly done, but I'm new at this and need some reassurance I won't screw it all up too badly!

 

[RM-MN]

I think storing you porter warm (notice I said warm, not cool) will improve it, not ruin it. It doesn't need to be pressurized the whole time either. It will need a few days to carbonate again if it does lose pressure though. Porters will change over time with the flavors melding and smoothing out. Warmer temps will make this happen sooner. Most of my porters improve greatly in about 3 months of warm (bottle) storage.

 

[antony]

go with your plan. I have ten kegs and regularly rotate things around my 4 keg fridge. As long as the keg isn't in the blazing heat & it's sealed, I'd think you'd be just fine.

 

[Froyd]

Wonderful, thanks for the encouraging feedback. I'm off to the LHBS.

 

[Homercidal]

Or, you can bottle the porter and keep some of them cold in your regular fridge while the other stuff ferments. No need to wait to drink it, and you can move forward with whatever brewing plans you had for the lager.