HomebrewandBeer.com forum

Just a simple question, when would a brew reach its peak after being gassed and left in fridge. I only have three kegs but should have more to let them improve with age.
Just wondering if you have anything to go by.

If it's an ale you're talking about, you're effectively cold-conditioning it. You won't get a lot of changes based on the yeast because ale yeast is pretty much shut down at that temperature. If it's a lager, you're essentially lagering it, meaning you'll get changes due to both the cold conditioning and the yeast activity.

Cold conditioning makes tannins, yeast and proteins to drop out of solution, giving you a cleaner tasting beer. Yeast activity is responsible for cleaning up certain byproducts from fermentation. Both improve your beer, and I'd say that anywhere from a month to three months in the fridge your beer is probably at its best.

How long can you store a keg for that your constantly having a beer from every few days?

If its in the fridge and being drunk from then as far as im concerned a fairly long time, i had a porter on tap that was still fantastic after a few months on tap cos i was not drinking alot of it but im not sure how long till they go bad..

Cheers mate, Thats it im getting some kegs

Yeah as long as you like really. You can even drink half a keg, disconnect it and leave it for a while an reconnect it; so long as you're careful to keep everything clean there should be no problem. I've never managed to keep a keg full for more than a month or two though!

So it's best to leave kegs of ale out of the fridge for a month or so and then cool it down to serve?

If you want to condition it. I normally do 1 week primary, 1 week secondary, 1 week keg in fridge, drink.

Heals wrote:So it's best to leave kegs of ale out of the fridge for a month or so and then cool it down to serve?

That's right Heals - think of the yeast in the keg and consider the keg to be one bloody large bottle of beer! If you ferment your ales at room temps (as most of us do!) then putting the keg in the fridge will send the yeast dormant, so the longer you leave it in a cool not cold spot in the house, the more time the yeast has to consume the more complex fermentables in the keg and thus further condition and improve the beer before we chill and serve it.
I've lost count of the number of kegged beers that tasted bloody ordinary after a couple of weeks and then over the next few months improved remarkably. When I first started AG brewing, I unwittingly used to extract too many harsh tannins from the sparge (sparge water was too hot and the pH was all wrong) but long term conditioning sorted out and smoothed the tannins out - just like wine buffs do when they put their wines away in a cellar.

Cheers,
TL

Just my 2.2 cents worth, I have a kegged stout that has been in the frig since march this year. It is still a 1/3 full and is tasting better each time I try it. In between I've have heaps of other stouts and porters but this one is special.

Phil