Help with Newbie keg question!

OkieDokie · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 7:39 pm Post subject: Help with Newbie keg question!

So i have run into a good problem to have! I cant drink the beer that i want to make fast enough, even having friends help.

My question is that i want to brew more and ferment them and store them, unpressurized, in Coney kegs. Can i keep them for a time unpressurized and not cooled, and what is the length of time i can do this?

Thanks for the help

Ben58 · Joined: 14 Aug 2011 Posts: 409 Location: Hamilton, Ontario

I make 20 gallons of beer finished, into 4 kegs. I'll hit each keg with 30 psi and purge the head space using the safety valve ring, 3 short blasts and ensure the lid is sealed. 2 kegs go into another room in the basement and 2 go into the fridge for carbonation. You should do this and have no problem using this method as the CO2 is protecting the beer.

OkieDokie · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:11 pm Post subject:

How long do you ink that i can leave them that way and at what temp is the other room?

**kal** · Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 3:20 pm Post subject:

You can leave beer in a keg at room temp for a long time. Just make sure the headspace is purged with CO2 to avoid oxidation.
Beer will change character over time however. Hoppiness will mellow, flavours will blend, and so forth. It really depends on the beer.

Some beers like wheat beers (wit, weizen, etc) and hoppy ones (Pale Ales/IPAs) are meant to be drunk young to let the freshness come through.

Others like strong barley wines or russian imperial stouts need a long time to age before being perfect.

So it really depends on the beer.

My beer that is not on tap yet is kept near 0F in my conditioning fridge but when that fills up (it holds 6 kegs) the beer is simply kept in kegs beside the fridge, sometimes for weeks or months. Avoid temperature cycling of the beer (ie: going from close to freezing to room temp multiple times) as that I find does bad things to beer.

Kal

OkieDokie · Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 12:15 pm Post subject:

So one more additional question on this topic. will i have to replace the CO2 in the head space over time because some of it will carbonate the beer or does the carbonation only occur while constantly hooked up to positive pressure CO2? on the same note, could i carbonate in another room at room temperature while the kegs are just sitting there, perhaps for months, and while they are conditioning, and then when i need to change kegs just put them in the cooler to drink? Does that do anything bad to the beer.

**kal** · Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:20 pm Post subject:

You won't have to do anything if the keg is properly sealed. You simply want to get the atmosphere out. Some of the CO2 will eventually go into solution in the beer but it'll equalize with the head space. The beer will not carbonate however to any noticeable level since you're not adding more by keeping it under pressure.

Carb'ing at room temp is hard because the pressure needs to be so high for anything to absorb. Google "volumes of co2 calculator". Here's one: http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator/

If you want to carb to (say) 2 volumes of CO2, you'd have to set your regulator to 21.8 PSI at 72F, or only 6 PSI at 38F.

I don't think it'll do anything bad.

Kal

OkieDokie · Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 5:03 pm Post subject:

That explains a lot then. I am still working out the right amount of gas on the regulator for this latest batch. It is coming out really foamy so it looks like i need to turn it down a lot as i keep the temperature of the keezer at around 35 and the pressure was way to high at 15 on the regulator. I inherently turned it down, but didn't know the settings. I have it around 7 PSI now, but might even drop it more after your post and looking again at the chart on page 299 of Brewing Classic Styles. It makes a lot more sense now. Thanks

Ben58 · Joined: 14 Aug 2011 Posts: 409 Location: Hamilton, Ontario

You may want to " burp " your kegs a couple of times at this point. This way you can degas the beer somewhat. Pull the safety valve ring for a short burst until the major hiss settles down and release.

Castermmt · Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 12:27 am Post subject:

I had a over carbed beer the other day and looked online and found a YouTube video that showed how to lower the carbonation by using your co2 system. The one thing I did differently was to use a flared beer out coupler hooked up to my co2 line, then connected it to the beer out post. if you don't use the right couplers its a bitch. This does work well. Hope this helps, Castermmt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk79UYGmAk8

OkieDokie · Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 2:41 am Post subject:

Thanks for the suggestions. I turned it down to about 5 psi, which I found out from Kal and rereading some books, equates to about 1.5-2 lbs of gas, and that seemed to help out quite a bit. I also used Ben58 advice about "burbing" the kegs and it seems to have stabilized quite a bit. I guess for the future, the beer would have gotten to the ideal carbonation level if I would have known more and just been a bit more patient.

I still have a bit more tweaking to do because the flow rate is still crazy fast, which is still giving a bit too much foam. I am not sure if i can close down the output valve on the tank a bit to reduce that, or if it is all just based on pounds of gas and the pressure. Just using a party tap for now, mainly because i haven't decided on the style of delivery system i want to do.

This is all part of the fun of DIY stuff! Thanks folks.