Storing Kegged beer

[punkin]

I'm about to start my transitional phase from nearly 30 years of 'Kit and Kilo' to allgrain. So please bear with me if i get some stuff wrong or show a lack of understanding in all the german words/processes

The reason being that i have discovered a free source of base malt:rockin:

ATM i'm studying hard trying to get the processes and how they fit into my equipment sorted. I've been reading all the stickies, searching the forums for stuff i don't know. I've downloaded Brewmate software fro recipes etc.

The goal so far is to find one or maybe two recipes as 'house beer' that are cheap and simple. I like the Thomas Coopers Wheat Beer extract kits and i like an australian Kent Brown ale as a commercial beer. These will come down the track.

The recipe i'm working on as house beer first is an American Pale Ale though and to this aim i have ordered the following ingredients based on price and advice from an allgrain mate or two;

unlimited (to a point) pale malt
25kg bag of Caramalt
25kg bag of wheat malt

1kg pellets Centennial
1kg pellets Pride of Ringwood

500gm block US-05 safale yeast.

I plan on using this esky shown in the pic (i think i have the pic attached) with 100l of water for single infusion and sparging, then a boil in 160l stainless gas fired pot to make up to 80 litres 20 us gallons at a time.
This will limit my beer making to one saturday morning a month hopefully.

After this i plan on fermenting in either one huge or two large fermenters till ready.

Here's where i'm not sure though, i have seven 5 gallon ball lock kegs. I'd like to think i could rack the beer into the sanitised kegs after fermenting, burp them with food grade Co2 and then just store them in the shed until i am ready to carbonate and refridgerate.

Is this possible?

I have read about the no chill cube method, but would prefer to have the beer fermented and ready to go, i just don't know whether it would go off unrefridgerated but protected by a blanket of Co2?

Commercial beer is transported in kegs all the time, but i assume it's pasturised or protected by preservatives

 

[BigRob]

In a word: yes.

I do this all the time, purge the keg with CO2 and release pressure a couple times to remove all the Oxygen, then age for however long you wish. When ready to drink, chill, hook on the gas and enjoy when fully carbed.

 

[malkore]

How cold/warm is the shed?

Heat is the bane of beer stability, in particular hop stability. The warmer a beer sits in the bottle or keg, the more quickly the hop bitterness, flavor and aroma degrade.

Its one of the reasons you'll see comments to keep IPA's cold and drink em young...because all that lovely hop goodness diminishes over time, and heat speeds it up.
Room temperature is enough to be 'too warm' for hop happiness.

If the shed stays at 'cellar temps' then you're starting to look pretty good. If the shed stays room temp you're still ok but know that the hoppiness will start to fade right away.
If the shed gets warmer than room temp by very much, its not a good environment for beer.

Side note: there's a local micro brewery that makes Hopluia, and they require by contract all the stores and bars keep the bottles cold at all times, and if any customer sees otherwise they are to contact the brewery so action can be taken.

Side side note: I had a chance to taste a half dozen bottles of one IPA that was stored room temp (3 bottles) and kept cold after bottling (3 bottles), and each bottle was at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months. The 3 cold bottles were definitely better than the 3 that weren't kept cold...to the extent the 6 month cold bottle was still hoppier than the 1 month warm bottle.

 

[Smashing]

Why not prime with sugar and let them carb naturally? Put that time in storage to use. Granted I've only done a couple of kegs but I've done this and the results were very good. I'm brewing my first 10 gal tomorrow and will carb one keg naturally and the other with co2. I'd like to see if I can taste the difference.

 

[punkin]

Thank you people, i have room in the house to store, so that's what i'll do. The shed is a tin shed in an aussie summer, up past 40C, specially when i have the burner going and it goes a lot.

 

[Seven]

I would definitely not store the beer in the hot shed. The heat can cause the flavors to fade quickly and you could get off flavors also.

 

[punkin]

Yep, thanks.

Could someone point me to a couple of starter recipes using the ingredients i have listed in my first post?

My tastes run to clear crisp 5=6% beers with light flavours and also to brown ales with a little sweetness. I like wheat beers, but doubt i'd be able to afford to use too much of the wheat malt per batch due to the cost of having it freighted to me.
The base malt is free to me, so i don't mind how much of that i use, i also have a lot of dextrose i use for my mashes and washes that go into the still.

I am happy to try making some darker crystal malts down the track from my base malt and have started reading some online stuff about that. I have smoked malt in my cold smoker for making scotch before too.

I don't mind if i have to buy a small amount of other hops (or even a nice cheap kilo) or other dry yeasts.

I've been pushing round the recipe pages, but it's like a needle in a haystack thing.

 

[lylo]

We need to know what base malts you have available.

 

[punkin]

We need to know what base malts you have available.

You tell me and we'll both know

Like i said, i get it for free, it comes direct from the malt factory and is shipped for export, that's all i know.

I've been punching pale malt into the brewmate software.

 

[brewit2it]

You tell me and we'll both know

Like i said, i get it for free, it comes direct from the malt factory and is shipped for export, that's all i know.

I've been punching pale malt into the brewmate software.

I'm going to need to sample some of this malt to give you an accurate analysis of it's composition. A 25 KG sack or 2 should suffice for my testing. PM me so I can give you my address. By the way, there will be no charge to you for my detailed investigation

 

[punkin]

Sure, you pay postage from Australia.

 

[punkin]

Couple more pics as a reward for anyone who wishes to participate with help on the recipes. (i know everyone loves pics)

This is the pot i'm converting to my boil pot. It was used as a steam injection pot for cooking cracked corn and other grains and was hooked to a 50 litre (15 gall) beer keg on a gas burner. The large pot is stainless and is 160 litre cappacity

I am stripping the insulation from the bottom and the first 200mm (8") of the sides to be able to run it with a propane burner underneath.

The 15 gallon keg next to it will be used for heating strike and sparge water.


It has two 1" sockets welded to the sides where the unions are for the steam to come and go, i will make a larger wort chiller hooked to them out of 1/2" copper tube and hook that up to my submersible pump in 600l tank to chill.


My grain mill is simple but works fine. I couldn't find a picture of it, i think it's a barley crusher (two roller adjustable) so i'll post a picture of my grain paddle instead. (i'm an idiot, the mill is in that picture)

 

[punkin]

No more photos for you lot, there's no love here.