Ok, I’m very new to kegging and actually haven’t used a corny yet. So I have a mine question. I don’t have my keezer set up… Still lacking the perfect freezer (7.5 cubic foot are hard to find). But I plan brewing a winter warmer pretty soon, and I want to store/age it in the keg. My question is, do I want to prime it before storing, or wait until it’s time to serve it?
Thanks!
I’m a total noob at this keg thing as well so take this for what it’s worth and I’m sure someone else will correct me if I’m wrong.
If by prime you mean naturally carb and condition you would first purge the keg with CO2, then rack over 1/3 less the amount of priming sugar you would use for bottling. Once racked, seat the lid with about 20psi of CO2 and clamp it down.
In this state the keg can sit indefinitely. If not naturally carbing, you want the beer at serving temp, force carb it and again it can sit, I believe.
If you naturally carb in keg then now is fine. You will need it to be cold to force carb it.
Sorry. I will be force carbing. So I keg it now, I put it in the keezer and get it to serving temp in December, andd then carb?
Correct, just be sure to purge the keg with CO2 to remove any traces if O2
That’s another question. Does that happen before adding beer? After? Or both?
I used to shoot my kegs with 10lbs of CO2 just to prevent oxidation or any infections then leave em sit until ready to put in the kegerator. But lately I have been adding 2oz of sugar then shooting with 10lbs of CO2 before storing them. That way as soon as I have them chilled they are ready to serve.
Actually, you can carb it now of you want to, and you can even carb it warm. I do that 99% of the time.
I do it after. I assume the beer will push out any air that’s in there so all I need to do is purge the headspace. Even if that assumption is wrong, I don’t suffer from oxidation so the process must be OK.
Makes sense. I serve out of a sanke now. I usually run 8-9 psi cold, so I would assume that would be an ok amount for long term storage warm since cold absorbs more CO2, so they won’t be over-carbed.
This also makes sense. I would think this would be good enough but just wanted to make sure. Thanks!
+1. Same here. I purge with CO2 before for hoppy beers to help preserve hop aromas and then after filling the keg, but otherwise I do it after.
If you won’t be serving it until winter and you won’t be refrigerating the keg, then it would make sense to prime it with some sugar to cut down on oxidation. Add sugar and enough pressure to seal the keg and check it occasionally for carbonation. The fermentation will scavenge the O2 while it carbonates.
I could be wrong, but do you really need to add sugar to cut down on oxidation. If you rack to the keg then purge w/ CO2 then there shouldn’t be any worries regarding oxidation right? I just put a winter warmer in a keg to age for the first time and did it this way w/out any sugar. I’ll put it in the fridge and force carb in December.
Same here, especially since serving temps for a few of the beers I regularly is 55-60°F. So you can definitely force carb at room or cellar temps…it may take longer (if you don’t to the “pressurize and shake” thing), but it does work.
I actually prefer it to ‘natural’ carbing.
What do you do the other 1 %?
It’s because it is hard to get all the O2 out of the keg, but the yeast eating the sugar will consume it. Ever notice that bottle-conditioned beers stay fresh longer than counter-pressure filled bottles? Even though I don’t ever leave kegs sitting around for any long periods of time, I thought this was a good idea to circumvent staling.
Amen to refermentation for long-lived brews!
When one gets really geeky about minimizing O2, one can fill a keg with sanitizer solution so that all the O2 is displaced. Then push the sanitizer out with CO2, so that you have a keg full of CO2. Then one can rack into the keg via the liquid out post. Also make sure the racking cane and tubing is full of beer, not air when you start, and that can be done by hooking up to a second empty keg until beer is flowing.
Tedious, but effective.
I chill it before I take it out and carb it. Due to space limitation, I don’t have CO2 run into my serving fridge.