Can you leave your keg of beer out of the fridge while force carbonating it to give it time to mature?
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Bottling gets you better tasting beer because you tend to leave most of the bottles out at room temp or cellar temp until a day or so before you drink them. That gives the beer more time to mature and clean up any off flavors. Those who keg rarely get to taste a properly matured beer because they put the keg in the cooler immediately and think their beer is the best it can be. While this is true with wheat beers and highly hopped beers, darker beers continue to improve for many months.
Just because you keg doesn't mean you can't also bottle. I bottle anything that needs lots of aging and keg everything else. I know a lot of others do this as well. Generally the rule I use is 1.060 and above gets bottled unless it's a hop forward beer like an IPA that needs be be consumed young. This is the best of both worlds. It frees up keg space and lets you age the bigguns.
That's a pretty good rule of thumb. Also, one thing that's nice about bottling is you can carbonate each batch to style. You can with kegs, but you have to shell out the dough for a crazy regulator setup.
I like to bottle my hefes so I can keep some of the yeast in there and drink the beer mit hefe.
That's true, but unless you have only 1 keg, you have to get a multiple regulator setup which is something I'm not interested in. I have a 4 way manifold, which is enough of a hassle. Then you have to worry about line length or you'll get super foamy pours for, say, if you want to carbonate a hefeweizen to 3 volumes of co2. There are complications, it's not all easy peasy.
Sure you could, theoretically, but which of you beer guzzlers can wait when you have beer in the keg? Wait 6 to 12 months? I don' think so. Some of my stouts have been in the bottle for over 2 years. Want to tie up a keg that long?
I age my beers in the keg. Maybe not for a year or two (I don't tend brew styles that merit that much aging), but it's not unusual for me to set a keg aside for several months after I've carbed it up. I guess it really depends on how many kegs you're willing to invest in. For me, the key is to build up a pipeline so you have other stuff to drink while you're waiting.
That said, I didn't brew all winter, so now my pipeline is f***ed. I went from 3 kegs on tap, some bottles, and 2 kegs aging down to nothing. Trying to rebuild it now....
Mine is the opposite. I brewed my last beer until November last Friday. What I have in bottles has to keep me going until then. Best of luck getting the pipeline refilled.
I age my beers in the keg. Maybe not for a year or two (I don't tend brew styles that merit that much aging), but it's not unusual for me to set a keg aside for several months after I've carbed it up. I guess it really depends on how many kegs you're willing to invest in. For me, the key is to build up a pipeline so you have other stuff to drink while you're waiting.
That said, I didn't brew all winter, so now my pipeline is f***ed. I went from 3 kegs on tap, some bottles, and 2 kegs aging down to nothing. Trying to rebuild it now....
I don't know how you guys do it. Not brewing for more than about a month drives me up the wall. I kind of want to start brewing smaller than 4 gallon batches so I can brew every weekend or 3 out of 4 weekends of the month. I wouldn't keg if I brewed anything smaller than 3 gallons. I often contemplate moving to 2.5 gallon batches because it equates to a case of 12oz beers. I could brew a lot more often and have the variety. But, I've got a sweet kegging setup, I feel obligated to use it. And when I see it sitting there, beckoning me, I feel obligated to pour a beer. Decisions, decisions...
I don't know how you guys do it. Not brewing for more than about a month drives me up the wall. I kind of want to start brewing smaller than 4 gallon batches so I can brew every weekend or 3 out of 4 weekends of the month. I wouldn't keg if I brewed anything smaller than 3 gallons. I often contemplate moving to 2.5 gallon batches because it equates to a case of 12oz beers. I could brew a lot more often and have the variety. But, I've got a sweet kegging setup, I feel obligated to use it. And when I see it sitting there, beckoning me, I feel obligated to pour a beer. Decisions, decisions...
I don't know how you guys do it. Not brewing for more than about a month drives me up the wall. I kind of want to start brewing smaller than 4 gallon batches so I can brew every weekend or 3 out of 4 weekends of the month. I wouldn't keg if I brewed anything smaller than 3 gallons. I often contemplate moving to 2.5 gallon batches because it equates to a case of 12oz beers. I could brew a lot more often and have the variety. But, I've got a sweet kegging setup, I feel obligated to use it. And when I see it sitting there, beckoning me, I feel obligated to pour a beer. Decisions, decisions...
This is my thoughts exactly...less quantity, more diversity. To each his own, but I love smaller batches for this reason
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