Last Pint = Best Pint

[ksbrain]

Oh my gammit! I am always killing a keg and then going for that one last bottle from the keg that I have, and then I finally appreciate the beer.

I was so sick of my RIS, I was begging for it to be done so I could tap my next IPA. It seemed so metallic and too much-ish. Now it's gone, except for this one bottle I had. So I opened it right now. Working from home today and tomorrow. Two hours of driving avoided warrants an extra beer, I figure.

It just tastes so right. It is still black as ever, roasty and all. It tastes like burnt toast in the best possible way, and I don't even like burnt toast. Maybe it's the buzz I already put on before this one, or maybe it's a bit of "you don't know what you got until it's gone", but this makes me want to brew another tomorrow.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

The last one from the keg is always the prettiest, too. Nice and bright and clear and tasty.

 

[BeNNeS]

I have to agree ... just drinking my last Nut Brown Ale and its the better than ever

It really is a case of "you don't know what you got until it's gone" but what i know its that this last brew is normaly the one that make me go back to my recipe book to write my last tought about that brew just in case..... so i cant remember how much i miss it.

 

[motobrewer]

yeah, i donno why that is. my working theory is that you're used to the off flavors and you don't notice them...

but last year i brewed a porter that wasn't very good. until the keg blew. as i was drinking the last glass i thought to myself, "this is what i wanted! why the heck wasn't the rest of the keg like this??"

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I've noticed it too (with kegs) and I think it is because the dip tube always pulls from the bottom and there is always stuff settling. So for most of the keg we keep pulling from the settled 'cloud' at the bottom and by the time we get to the last pint we are pulling the beer from the top that settled the most. It seems even the big proteins that prevent foam (or retention) have settled and you get the best head on that last pint. Some polyphenols would also have settled making the beer seem smoother.

 

[RatCity]

So true!! I do wonder if it's just the extra bit of conditioning that helps? My pipeline is pretty tight so I am stuck with the 3 weeks fermentation + 2 weeks kegged cycle, so the beer I drink is just 5 weeks old. By the time I'm kicking the keg it's 8+ weeks...maybe that time really helps the flavor?

Jealous of people with keezers and space to ferment / keg multiple batches at once.

 

[jkreuze]

I know I tend to drink it too fast, my pipeline is never more than a keg and a half deep. My beer starts getting great with about two gallons left in the keg. My kolsch should stick around for awhile though, I'm going to lager that for a couple of months.

I've increased time in the primary to 4-6 weeks (low-sun winter laziness) and that seems to help. Also, I find the beer tastes better once the carbonation has reached a stable equilibrium, usually 1-2 weeks on the gas.

I have next week off so I'm going to buy a couple of extra buckets and brew until I run out of fermentation space, probably 4-5 five gallon batches. That plus what I have in kegs now should give me a thirty-gallon pipeline buffer (not counting the 5gal apfelwein for weekend palate cleansing and hangover curing).

 

[Coldies]

I just kegged a dry irish stout a while ago and everytime I pour a pint I have thoughts in my head on how much better it could be and I should have done this or shouldnt have done that, etc... but last night as I was adjusting my PSI on my smoke porter I saw from the condensation line of the irish stout keg that it was damn near done. It made me appreciate the pint I had in my hand that much more.

 

[BendBrewer]

That's why I brew 10 gallons. Kick a keg in it's prime and have 5 more gallons of it right behind!

 

[jafo28]

I just kicked the keg on my porter last night. I was just about to keg my brown ale so the timing was perfect. I was able to hook the gas up and still have my amber ale to drink, need a bigger kegerator can only fit two cornies in there.

 

[RatCity]

I just kicked the keg on my porter last night. I was just about to keg my brown ale so the timing was perfect. I was able to hook the gas up and still have my amber ale to drink, need a bigger kegerator can only fit two cornies in there.

That's my struggle too - only two cornys in my kegerator. And my temp controlled fermentation chamber is a wine cooler that only fits one 5 gallon bucket at a time (room temp in my apt fluctuates big time). The solution I'm going to try is to ferment in the chamber for 2 weeks, then secondary at room temp for the third week (thus freeing up the chamber for a new batch).

5 gallons every two weeks should suit me...(famous last words).

 

[Nickme23]

see that's why I want to get 3 more Sanke kegs, fill em up, keep em cold and it should last me into the summer.

 

[DizzyPants]

Agreed. Maybe intuitively we know the last pint is there and it was the best. Oh well, I am into pipe building in 2011. A ten gallon Canadian Ale on Sat and 5 gallon Helles too. Gonna be a long drunken fun day. Then I guess someone said something about a football game on Sunday? Could be a good weekend.