Storage Prior to Bottling

[tomakana]

In the event that I need to store a beer for a while before bottling, what's the safest way to do that? I tend to do smaller batches (1G primarily, stepping up to 2G soon) and don't always have time to bottle on any sort of schedule. It's obvious that once you keg something, it can be stored for quite a while (if not indefinitely), but I'm not at the point of jumping to kegging yet.

Once something's fully fermented, would it be reasonable to store it in any airtight, oxygen-purged container until I can bottle? I'm thinking that I'd need to account for the following:

1. Airtight
2. How to purge oxygen
3. Easy to transfer out of when I'm ready to bottle
4. Compact to store
5. Impact of storage on style of beer

Is it easiest to bite the bullet and just get a couple of small kegs, or are there less expensive options I could use? I would plan to wait for fermentation to complete, transfer to the storage container, then purge, seal, and store. At a later time, I'd transfer to bottles (with priming sugar and yeast as needed) to bottle condition when I'm ready.

Any thoughts?

 

[flars]

How long do you plan to store the beer? Five weeks or less keep the beer in the primary and get more fermentors. Keep the handling to the minimum to prevent possible problems.

 

[ncbrewer]

How long do you plan to store the beer? Five weeks or less keep the beer in the primary and get more fermentors. Keep the handling to the minimum to prevent possible problems.

Yes, and I've kept it in primary for 8 weeks with no problem. If you're keeping it longer, you can transfer to secondary.