Long term tertiary ferment?

[Toolty]

A few years ago I made a strawberry ale, recently opened the last bottle. The flavor profile had greatly increased to that of almost a strawberry jam.
Now I am looking to recreate, but keg instead of bottle. I was planning on a normal primary fermentation and then racking the beer over the strawberries in secondary for two weeks. Finally looking to move the third fermentation to allow for the beer to settle and develop depth of flavor. I have the ability to keep this third fermentation temperature controlled. I would like to keep the beer in this state for at least over a year.
Backstory complete, how long have you all kept beer un-carbonated or un-bottled?

I would appreciate any insight. Thank you in advance!

 

[Franktalk]

I've never aged a beer in bulk except in a rum or bourbon barrel. I think you are tempting fate to bulk condition beer for a long time. Unless you did a closed transfer from primary to secondary and then to tertiary, you have picked up some oxygen that will spoil it over a long period. With that said, maybe you are desiring oxidized flavors?

The safer way to do the same thing without risking oxidation is to keg or bottle the beer and then age it. Carbonation will not inhibit the aging process. Package it and age away.

 

[NTexBrewer]

I agree with what Franktalk said.

I’ve had a similar experience with a pumpkin ale my cousin brewed. He gave me a year old bottle and it was crystal clear with great pumpkin flavor. It was bottle conditioned so oxidation was minimized.

I’m guessing the flavor may intensify because the hop bitterness and flavor fades making the pumpkin or in your case strawberry flavor appear more prominent.

Maybe, Brew this beer with less hop bitterness and you will get the flavor sooner.

Since you are now kegging you can always add priming sugar to your keg to carbonate and then do your bulk aging in the keg.

 

[Toolty]

Thanks for the advice, I had completely forgotten about adding the priming sugar to a keg and letting it self carbonate. I have become to reliant on force carbonation.