HomebrewandBeer.com forum

if your drinking a beer in a keg and then want to store it what is the best way to do it
im going on a holiday for a couple of months and want some beer when i get back can i just leave it set up or will it go off

As it is. Leave it in the fridge at serving pressure and it will simply condition. Some might suggest taking off the the outlet on the keg and flushing the beer line before you go but I simply spray the the end of the tap with some sanitiser to stop any growths that may occur over time(my line is all refrigerated). If I haven't cleaned the lines for a while then I run a bit of napisan through the lines and tap and leave it to soak for the duration of my absense.

Cheers
Hirns.

If it has been flushed of CO2 then you can even take the keg out of the fridge or even turn the fridge off. The beer will not go off as it's oxygen that causes it to age badly and the keg shouldn't have any oxygen in it. You can throw it back into your keg fridge when you get home, turn the fridge on then and be drinking your beer the next day.

sounds like you could even leave it out side and in the sun with that oxygen free atmosphere

so main thing is to clean my tap befor i go or when i get back and every thing should be sweet

do what Hirns. said disconnect it from your dipensing system leak test the fittings on your keg then leave it in your fridge and keep it cool!

have a good holiday and be reassured that your brew is waiting for you to come home

Fair dinkum, do you just make this crap up as you go? You don't have to keep a keg cool. It would do perfectly fine to sit at room temperature. Obviously, putting it in the sun is a stupid suggestion, but the beer will suffer no adverse effects if it is brought to room temperature and he'd be saving money on not having to run a fridge needlessly. Then he can connect the keg back up when he gets home and chill it to be ready to drink the next day.

Shanus
look after your beer and it will look after you
these boys have posted before on the pitfalls of beer being transported unrefrigerated
so it makes very good sense to keep it cool
much better than room temperature unless you live in tassie
cheers

speedie wrote:these boys have posted before on the pitfalls of beer being transported unrefrigerated

You didn't want to accept this point when presented to you at the time - why do you rely on it now?

Regardless, I very much doubt anyone is suggesting that keeping it in the fridge is going to hurt the beer. Many ways to skin a cat. Follow whichever method makes most sense to your situation, Shanus, and see what you reckon when you get back. Have a good trip.

There are many articles on storing and cellaring beer and, when compared with wine, the science seems to be very similar.

Stable temperature (humidity won't really matter, neither will light if the beer's kegged). Before storing, make sure the keg is properly burped and gassed to flush out the oxygen. Alcohol and CO2 act as a natural preservative.

I haven't done too much research on this, but I'm led to believe dark beers age better. Coopers claim their stout can be put down for a 'few years'; my home brew shop has a keg of stout in their fridge which has been there for 6 months. I'm now brewing a batch of Coopers stout which I plan to keg and cellar for a year.