what to do with leftover kegged Christmas beer

[brokebucket]

I have a half a keg of Christmas beer left over that I would love to save for next year (so I dont have to re-brew). I dont particularly like Christmas beer or I would just drink it. But friends do, and besides, it was ridiculous expensive to make.

Trouble is, I can only hold 3 kegs in the fridge and I have #4 ready to go in a couple days. Would you:

A) let it sit in the garage, exposed to the changes in season (probably not)

B) Find a hole in a closet and put the keg in there.

C) Bottle it and give most of it away (I can house a few bombers long term)

D) Bottle it and hope to find someone with a fridge that will house it for 9 months

 

[blizz81]

I'm guessing Christmas = spices? If so, in the two or three I've made, I've definitely noticed some spices fade quickly / others taking over after a little bit of aging. Just something to keep in mind. (Last one was fairly well balanced for a couple months and then turned into a clove bomb as the other spices died out).

I'd probably say A or B without worrying too much about said changes in season.

 

[Auger]

I would bottle it to free up the space and keg. I do this regularly when I have big beers kegged that don't get finished quickly. I bottle off the keg, make sure to cap on foam to eliminate as much oxygen exposure as possible, and I store them in cases in the basement. My basement stays 55-60 year round so I don't bother refrigerating them after bottling. blizz has a relevant comment though, even though the beer might technically keep until next December, you may pop a top by then and find it's changed dramatically. Might make for an interesting experiment though!

 

[Revvy]

I would hit it with gas, leave it in a keg, and find the coolest place in the house to store it in til next year. THEN next season sanitize a hop sock, and make a "bouquet garni" of whatever the spices are (and any more you might want to add,) drop them in the keg, and serve it next year.

As long as you keep it "coolish" like in a basement, the keg IS the best way to store beer.
It doesn't need to be kept cold... cool will be fine. I've stored half kegs for a year in my basement they were fine the next year.


If you bottle it, you are STUCK with the spices fading in a year.

But in a keg you can always freshen it up next year. You can even drop in some rum, or oak or something else next year to mix it up a bit, or build a randall and load it with whatever you want, like crumbled fruit cake, or oranges spiked with cloves, or gingerbread cookies, or candied fruits, or cookies, or candies, just like Dogfish Head does with their randalls, and flow the beer over those ingredients, making an entirely new beer out of it next Christmas.

If you bottle it you're stuck, but if you leave it somewhere you can get created next year.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

BUY MOAR KEGS!!!





(A message from your subconscious)



I'd just bottle it.

 

[PlexVector]

Add (blue dye?) to change the color to green for a "St Patrick's Day beer"?

 

[Auger]

OR yes, do this:

I would hit it with gas, leave it in a keg, and find the coolest place in the house to store it in til next year. THEN next season sanitize a hop sock, and make a "bouquet garni" of whatever the spices are (and any more you might want to add,) drop them in the keg, and serve it next year.

As long as you keep it "coolish" like in a basement, the keg IS the best way to store beer.
It doesn't need to be kept cold... cool will be fine. I've stored half kegs for a year in my basement they were fine the next year.


If you bottle it, you are STUCK with the spices fading in a year.

But in a keg you can always freshen it up next year. You can even drop in some rum, or oak or something else next year to mix it up a bit, or build a randall and load it with whatever you want, like crumbled fruit cake, or oranges spiked with cloves, or gingerbread cookies, or candied fruits, or cookies, or candies, just like Dogfish Head does with their randalls, and flow the beer over those ingredients, making an entirely new beer out of it next Christmas.

If you bottle it you're stuck, but if you leave it somewhere you can get created next year.

And then do this:

BUY MOAR KEGS!!!

That's a better option if you can swing it. I usually bottle off the kegs simply because I can't/don't want to buy any more kegs at a given time.

 

[Revvy]

The OP never said he didn't have more kegs, he said;

Trouble is, I can only hold 3 kegs in the fridge and I have #4 ready to go in a couple days.

That's why he's asking about storage.... I only have 3 taps on my keezer too, but I have many more kegs.

 

[brokebucket]

I have more kegs, I'll just do that.

Thanks!

 

[kh54s10]

Did you like it?

no ---- Dump it!
yes ---- DRINK IT!

 

[k1ngl1ves]

The OP never said he didn't have more kegs

Doesn't matter the question. The only reasonable answer is...

MOAR KEGS!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

hey, I feel ya brother. I just kicked my Christmas ale keg last week. Tapped it mid December. I gotta get more friends!!!

 

[Ruckusz28]

Might be a silly question, but if you bottle it for storage, would you want to spike it with a little priming sugar? I'd imagine some of the carbonation would bleed off into the headspace.

 

[Auger]

In my experience, not enough to be noticeable.

 

[JoshuaW]

Might be a silly question, but if you bottle it for storage, would you want to spike it with a little priming sugar? I'd imagine some of the carbonation would bleed off into the headspace.

Its usually not enough to matter. If you are worried about it, you can always bump the pressure 1-2psi a week before bottling it. I wouldnt try repriming it. That seems like a recipe for disaster, as it will be impossible to know exactly how much carbonation there already is.

 

[IslandLizard]

Both Pumpkin and Christmas ales were much better (smoother) a year and a half after brewing. I had bottled the Christmas ale. I still have 3 left, 3 years old now. Aging is the key!