How long can will beer last in a keg unrefrigerated?

[NitrouStang96]

Say you have your Sanyo 4912 conversion and room for 2 kegs. If you make 5 batches and they have gone through primary and secondary and have racked to your multiple kegs, how long can you just leave it sit there in the keg before it goes into the kegerator?

 

[Jaybird]

at what temp??
If you keep them below your ferment temp they will last forever or close to it. But if you let them heat up your gonna have problems
JJ

 

[eriktlupus]

as long as you've hit em w/co2 to seal the cans you should be fine storing em like a bottle,ie no widlly fluctuating temps/humidity as long as you check for seal periodically. i usually have at least one keg aging in the basement waiting for me to kick one in the kegerator

 

[NitrouStang96]

Hmm... What if you kill off the yeast somehow and then rack to the keg and leave it at ~70F

 

[Brewsmith]

Your keg is acting like a secondary. The little bit of yeast that's in there is fine. You can keep it for months.

 

[PeteOz77]

Just as a side note to this thread. Don't chill your kegs before they have conditioned. I have kegs that I put immediately into the kegerator after filling them. I am talking over a month ago, and they are not finished conditioning. OK for a lager, but I want to drink my beer now.. and it's not ready yet, but I think it would definitely have been ready if it were conditioning at room temps.

 

[NitrouStang96]

On that note... could I primary for 2-3 weeks and then keg them and leave them sit in the keg as secondary for up to a couple months before putting the keg into the fridge and carbonating?

If so... PERFECT!

 

[PeteOz77]

Yep, that's the idea. I have started doing exactly that..... However, I am a newb and I would wait for a more informed opinion.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

You have to age the brew before carbonation. Time is largely based on OG, and IBU's (and odd flavors ie strong esters) But once it's been carboy conditioned then it needs to be cold conditioned under co2. 3 weeks is a good time frame. Longer for big beers. Not that you can't "sample" any time you want.

 

[Kevin Dean]

I brew faster (usually) than I can drink. Most of the time I decide I need to keg in order to clear up a fermenter (SWMBO told ME "I think you need to go buy a new keg").

What I do is rack to the keg, hit it with CO2 to seal it and then stash it under my secondary table:

I've had kegs sit down there for several months before re-connecting them to the CO2 system and drinking them. As a matter of fact, I've drank half a keg, moved it off, let it sif for a few months and then reconnected it.

Maximum? I'm not sure. Several months, however, is not a problem.