Does beer in a pressure barrel improve?

[Beeblebear]

I bought myself a king keg for my birthday, and brewed a Coopers Bootmaker kit. I’ve always bottled before and I know that the longer I leave it, the tastier the bottled beers tend to be.

Two weeks of in the King Keg and I tried a glass, all carbed up nicely but a severely underwhelming beer. What I’m wondering is will the beer improve over time if I’m drinking it from the Keg, or is the bottle conditioning better because it just sits there undisturbed?

 

[Graz]

Yes, beer will "condition" in a keg just the same as it will in a bottle. Just make sure it stays pressurised and the CO2 will keep it safe from oxidisation and any other nasties.

How long to leave it really depends on the beer style. For me I find modern hop driven American style IPAs, pale ales and so on are better drank fresh as the hop aroma diminishes over time so I'm happy to start drinking them 3-4 weeks after kegging. Sometimes even less than that depending on my current stock levels. British style ales typically benefit from a bit longer conditioning, maybe 6 weeks minimum. Finally dark ales, porters, stouts etc. especially if high in alcohol, then the longer the better really and probably better suited to bottle conditioning.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Yes, just think of it as being like a big bottle. It’s not the lack of being disturbed that matures the flavours, it’s the time :-)

And I second @Graz: you probably want to leave it a bit longer than two weeks to notice a difference. In general at least four for a 1.040 beer, five for a 1.050, etc

 

[The Baron]

You would not believe how some beers change in a matter of weeks. I have drunk beers 4 weeks after the initial kegging plus a week and you would think they are different beers sometimes so maturation does work.
Here's a common brewers statement "the last couple of pints in a keg are the best"