Storage at room temperature - kegs vs bottles

[DrFuggles]

I got the final bits for my kegs this Xmas and will be kegging my disastrous (another story) New Years Day IPA brew next weekend.

I'm wondering about conditioning and shelf life.

1) I understand beer in kegs keeps better. Some on here say they have kept kegs at room temp for 6 months+ before serving and they have been fine. Up to now I've been bottling and notice all my beers stored at room temp deteriorating - loss of hop aroma/slight oxidation - at the 3 month+ mark. Will this improve with kegs?

2) I plan to rack to a keg this weekend, leave for 2 weeks room temp to condition under minimal co2 pressure (10psi) then chill to 7C (45F) and carb for a week at 12psi before serving. Sound sensible?

 

[billl]

1) Bottles keep better than or as well as kegs - at least naturally carbed bottles do. Nobody is serving 12 year aged kegs, right? As a practical matter, hops fade. It doesn't matter where they are stored. Beer is oxidized when you introduce O2. That is a process flaw, not a container flaw.

2) Not really. When your beer is finished, crash cool it, then keg it. Carb and serve. A week is not long enough for the set-it-and-forget-it carb method. 2 weeks at 12 PSI at room temp won't do much of anything unless your beer wasn't finished when you kegged it.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

1. The beer should keep well in kegs, I wouldn't worry about it.

2. Sounds fine to me.

 

[ol-hazza]

I got the final bits for my kegs this Xmas and will be kegging my disastrous (another story) New Years Day IPA brew next weekend.

I'm wondering about conditioning and shelf life.

1) I understand beer in kegs keeps better. Some on here say they have kept kegs at room temp for 6 months+ before serving and they have been fine. Up to now I've been bottling and notice all my beers stored at room temp deteriorating - loss of hop aroma/slight oxidation - at the 3 month+ mark. Will this improve with kegs?

2) I plan to rack to a keg this weekend, leave for 2 weeks room temp to condition under minimal co2 pressure (10psi) then chill to 7C (45F) and carb for a week at 12psi before serving. Sound sensible?

1. Not really but yes. I find it easier to avoid oxygen when filling kegs than it is with bottles, but both containers once sealed are equally effective. (Other than bottles and sunlight). Avoiding oxygen is the biggie though. Oxygens effects will be slowed at lower temperatures though, so if you can store your beer cold, do so (Once it gets to optimum flavour anyway).

2. If you are carbonating in the keg using sugar/dme/wort then the pressure may well get above 10psi at room temperature. No need to leave the gas connected either, purge the headspace to remove oxygen once it is full (purge the keg before filling as well), give it a squirt to seat the lid and let it carbonate.

If by conditioning you just mean aging it for a while, there is no reason why you can't carbonate it at the same time that I know of. Check out a keg carbonation chart or calculator to figure the pressure/temp balance and let it rip.

 

[DrFuggles]

1) Beer is oxidized when you introduce O2. That is a process flaw, not a container flaw.

But I bought shiny new kegs...! Surely that's going to make me a better brewer, right?

Thanks all for the advice - in my original post, I made the rookie error of confusing conditioning with aging. I'll be chucking it all in the fridge as soon as it's done and waiting a coupla weeks.