Kegging not-quite finished beer

[boist]

Question for all you long-time keggers out there: Can I put a not-quite-finished beer in a keg safely?
I have a beer that will have a total of seven days between brewing and kegging, and while it's an ale, and it will ferment a little warm, I'm worried that it would not be quite done by the time I have to keg it (usually I give my ales 2-3 weeks in the fermenter).
My gut assumption is that I should just keg the thing, put it under carbing pressure, and not worry about it. I figure it'll be maybe a few points off FG, and if the yeast in the beer generates its own CO2, that will just bring it up to pressure faster. But I've never done this before (I've never, in fact, kegged before) so I wanted some advice from people who might have done this already. Any thoughts?

 

[Zubius]

I have kegged a bock after 9 days in the primary, not a good idea... It took another 2 weeks for it to taste ok and it never cleared up.

Leave it in the primary..

 

[boist]

Thanks Zub!

 

[BigFloyd]

When you cool the keg down to 38-40*F for carbonating, you're going to stop fermentation and it won't finish up. Unless you have some extraordinary reason, why try to rush it that much?

That being said, I've kegged at two weeks following a favorable gravity reading or two. I like to give bottle batches three weeks to be sure.

 

[NickN72]

If you are thinking of kegging it in order to free up a fermenter it shouldn't be a problem. You can go ahead and transfer it into the keg like you normally would, but just don't put it under pressure or chill it. Treat the keg like a secondary and once its done you can hook up the co2 and chill it for serving. On the other hand if it is just because you don't want to wait, I would say just have the patience and it will pay off.

 

[BigFloyd]

If you are thinking of kegging it in order to free up a fermenter it shouldn't be a problem. You can go ahead and transfer it into the keg like you normally would, but just don't put it under pressure or chill it. Treat the keg like a secondary and once its done you can hook up the co2 and chill it for serving. On the other hand if it is just because you don't want to wait, I would say just have the patience and it will pay off.

Good point.

I wasn't considering the "need to free up the primary for a new batch" reason to move it early.

 

[justkev52]

Question for all you long-time keggers out there: Can I put a not-quite-finished beer in a keg safely?
I have a beer that will have a total of seven days between brewing and kegging, and while it's an ale, and it will ferment a little warm, I'm worried that it would not be quite done by the time I have to keg it (usually I give my ales 2-3 weeks in the fermenter).
My gut assumption is that I should just keg the thing, put it under carbing pressure, and not worry about it. I figure it'll be maybe a few points off FG, and if the yeast in the beer generates its own CO2, that will just bring it up to pressure faster. But I've never done this before (I've never, in fact, kegged before) so I wanted some advice from people who might have done this already. Any thoughts?

It will probably be sickening sweet.

 

[boist]

ok, there seems to be a consensus about this not being very good for the beer. Fair enough. I was hoping to free up a fermenter this way (and I guess I still can) but maybe patience is the better way to go.
Thanks all!

 

[broadbill]

If you have good fermentation temp control, there is no reason why at least some ale styles should not be at FG and ready to drink at 7-8 days. Most should be ready in 12-14 days.

There is no reason why you need to one needs to keep beers in a fermenter for 2-3 weeks, you have a good process in place. The reason that this is a recommendation is because most homebrewers don't have a good process in place with regard to making drinkable beer, quickly.

 

[KevinM]

You could put the unfinished beer in there, and let it finish in the keg, using it's own co2 to naturally carbonate the beer. This is quite often done, since there are places who have certain rules that don't allow the use of external co2 to carbonate the beer. (See Cask Ale)
You could also put a finished beer and corn sugar (dextrose) to let the beer carbonate. This does mean that you will have additional yeast, (from what was in the original uncleared beer, and the addition of new yeast from the corn sugar), but this isn't really an issue. It's just that once you chill it and let it clear, all the yeast settles at the bottom and the first few pours will probably get this. Some people cut their dip tube shorter to avoid this.

You should just cycle some co2 to flush out the oxygen and to seat the lid, but it's not necessary to carbonate at room temp. And it is possible to carbonate at room temperature, it's just that you have to know your conversion charts to know what a room temp psi would be to settle at your desired psi at 34degrees or whatever fridge temp you use.

It's also possible to do a primary in a keg, and rack by connecting two outlets together and using co2 to push out the beer to the other one, and this too would wind up getting yeast from the bottom.

None of these have any problem with the beer, and it will finish and yes, will be clear if you have used finings and let the yeast settle (Downside of course is if you move your keg, the yeast kicks up a bit, so no shaking unless it's a hefe).

Also, the keg should have a pressure relief valve that isn't a onetime valve so that it can vent if it somehow reaches over 100 or so psi. (Even though I had a blowoff tube when I was fermenting in a keg once, it got clogged and the valve kept venting every few hours).

Unless any of these were your goal, it's generally easier to just let it finish where it is for a few more days then transfer, it's less calculation and work to do.