storing after fermenting.

[lucky]

hey all,

up till all hours of the morning learning as much as i
can about making gold. have searched this but cant find.

Q. after fermentation, there is either bottling or kegging.
is there a tried method of anybody storing uncarbonated
beer in cubes or additional fermentors for extended periods?

i understand the process of racking into another container. is
it possible to keep the beer in there if i can eliminte as much 02
as possible. until i have a spare keg to drink from...

the process i am thinking is a cube with a tap, rack into there
eliminate as much 02 as possible by squeezing the sides so i
push the beer to the top of the lid, and seal. any secondary
fermentation if it happens should expand the cube to normal
dimentions. then store in a dark cool place until drinking

Has anybody tried something like this?

[General]

Hey Lucky,

I've never tried it, but theres a site on the net that talks about building a beer fridge with a tap, they suggest that if you rack to a cube, you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 months to mature before racking into the keg.

It makes sense, the cold would slow (if not stop completely) any secondary fermentation, and there should be no difference between storing it in a keg, and a cube.

[lucky]

thanks for the quick reply most appriciated.

i am not really worried about the secondary fermentation.

just what residual o2 may do to the beer?

has anybody stored beer in any other method than, kegging
bottling?

cheers

[Oliver]

I have no experience with this, but it would seem that there's no problem with it. You might want to add a little sugar when you transfer, to create some CO2, which you can then purge, along with any oxygen, over the first few days.

Cheers,

Oliver

[lucky]

Great idea with the sugar,

thanks. any idea what type of sugar? how much per
15l would i use?

[Tony]

I'd use 5g/L - that seems to be the amount that people who do natural carbonation in kegs do. Probably doesn't matter that much what sort of sugar.

The other thing to be aware of is that when you pull your beer out of storage you will probably need to rouse your yeast up off the bottom for final carbonation, or even re-pitch.

Tony

[Oliver]

I'd use 5g/L - that seems to be the amount that people who do natural carbonation in kegs do. Probably doesn't matter that much what sort of sugar.

Although you don't want to carbonate it, just generate a bit of CO2 so that you can purge it and any oxygen remaining. Half that dose should be more than enough, I'd think.

But I'm open to discussion on this ...

Oliver

[Tony]

Probably right. I bottled a Cooper's Sparkling Ale last night at 5g/L.

Having thought about this more, what you need to do is to stimulate some "bottle conditioning" effect once the beer is in the storage container, so that the yeast can scavenge any residual oxygen left in the headspace, or absorbed by the beer in the process of being racked. You don't actually want to carbonate per se, unless your storage container can take some pressure.

Tony

[lucky]

thanks heaps guys.

i am definately going to give it a go in cubes with the
suggested dose of sugar. i will update to over time
to see how it goes!!!