Kegging v bottling

[Andio]

Hello there I'm sure this must have been covered here somewhere but there's so man posts I can't see it. I'm still a brewing novice and I am still sticking to kits at the moment as I. Learning the ropes so to speak.

I have 2 good coopers lager / euro lagers done and did an on the rocks pear cider at Xmas , which although was to sweet for me was appreciate by all others.

Now as I seem to have some kind of romantic attachment to my brewing I have a Real Ale brewing with half a bag of hops as I ween myself away from fizz to something earthy and ' sit around the fireplace ' as I think of it.

Any ways I would like to ask a small question on something I'm sure experience would teach me , but I really fancy this brew and would like to age it slightly better.

If I transfer this fully fermented brew to a pressure keg I have bought with a tap and add he correct amount of priming sugar, how long will it remain fresh and fizzy after I start drawing pints from it please ?

Up to now I have bottled all my lagers so it didn't matter , but I want to get another batch on and wish to use the bottles for the next batch. I did put the cider in the keg , but it was drunk over a matter of days by thirsty friends and families over Xmas, therefore I didn't really get a chance to check it out.

Appreciate any experience / opinions on the matter thanks.

 

[RobWalker]

you'll be okay to keg it for a year onwards. most beers peak at 6 months, so that's the ideal time to drink them. it won't get much better after 2 months of storage. but one thing to consider is that kegs can only carbonate low, so it may be good for ales, stouts, low carbonation cider etc, but you won't get a fizzy lager out of it. it'll be drinkable, don't get me wrong, but bottles can handle more pressure.

2L bottles arn't a bad idea if you're sharing it out! Just pour like a regular bottle into a pitcher instead of a glass, then pour into your glasses as requried. It'll keep for a good hour in the pitcher.

 

[Andio]

Lovely thanks for that , just to clarify it keeps well in he barrel even after you start pouring pints ?

 

[johnnyboy1965]

I think 1 year in a keg is very optomistic

 

[rpt]

Once you start pouring pints you will need to add CO2 to stop it going off. If drunk slowly it may make enough extra CO2 through fermentation but otherwise you will need to add CO2 from a bottle.

 

[fbsf]

From experience, if you carbonate the keg with 80g of sugar, you should have enough CO2 to last about half the barrel.

So if you aren't planning on drinking it all in a few days, you'll need some way of injecting CO2 into the top of it - you can get barrel caps with valves on them for either the sparklet bulbs or the Hambleton-Bard S30 cylinders.

If you like the idea of barelling your beers, then the S30 is the best way forward. Although it costs more in the short term (£25 for the cylinder) it will last a lot longer than £25 worth of bulbs, and is refillable for about a fiver a time at your local brew shop.

 

[Andio]

That's ok I have the injection lid for the barrel , but it seems bottles will be more straightforward to do. I think the pressure barrel might have been a bit of a waste of money looking at it.

 

[sen5es]

i prefare bottles as glass is a clean packing material and i get my bottles for cheaper than a keg also
i suppose if you have a bar it is better to keg but glass bottles all the way for me

 

[Mark1964]

Thought i told you about posting at the end of threads. You cannot of read my pm properly. If you do it again you will face a warning or outright ban.

 

[Andio]

Is that meant for me ?

 

[Mark1964]

no the guy thats trying to sell everyone bottles

 

[EskiBrew]

i prefare bottles as glass is a clean packing material and i get my bottles for cheaper than a keg also
i suppose if you have a bar it is better to keg but glass bottles all the way for me

Not everyone likes using bottles :nah: - just because you sell bottles, please do not be pushy :nono:

Personally I can't stand using bottles - just cleaning a few to enter a competition is bad enough :sick: