How long to leave SS kegs before drinking.

[Robert Pretty]

Hey guys how long do you leave your SS kegs for before carbonating and drinking. I left my Brewflo kegs for 4 weeks min for lagers and 8 weeks for ales. The first one an IPA I left for 2 weeks prior to carbonating. Feel it could do with a few weeks more. That's the problem building stock and not getting impatient. Cheers

[Thagomizer]

I'm using the 5L Mini Kegs with the Party Star Deluxe tap system.  I have been letting secondary fermentation go for about 8 weeks before I tap them.  I like 10 weeks or more for stouts - not that I don't cheat a little bit sometimes.

I keg 5L and then bottle the rest.  (The cheating is done with the bottles.)

[Captain 3 Droids]

29 minutes ago, Robert Pretty said:

how long do you leave your SS kegs for before carbonating and drinking.

Same as you would if bottling or with your BrewFlo kegs as to the maturity level you want. The important thing with the ss kegs is to purge the air out of the head space for storage/maturing purposes.

[Dustin Frothman]

3 hours ago, Robert Pretty said:

Hey guys how long do you leave your SS kegs for before carbonating and drinking. I left my Brewflo kegs for 4 weeks min for lagers and 8 weeks for ales. The first one an IPA I left for 2 weeks prior to carbonating. Feel it could do with a few weeks more. That's the problem building stock and not getting impatient. Cheers

The minmum for me is usually 4 weeks but it does depend on the recipe.

Perhaps if you’re impatient then do it like this - leave the keg to condition for 2 weeks, put it on gas at 12 psi for a week to carbonate, then serve. This way you’d not be consuming any earlier than 3 weeks.

[Robert Pretty]

Thanks guys, it was easy when I had plenty of Brewflo keg stock. Although that did take time. Just need to keep brewing and be patient again. 

[Thagomizer]

I just had a great taste revelation.  Sometimes when I bottle a batch, the tail end is too small for a pint, but suitable for a 12 oz. longneck.   I tend to set these aside and forget them.  Yesterday, I retrieved a longneck of Lawnmower Lager bottled in Feb. 26.  It was fabulous.  Lawnmower, even at three or four weeks is a great drink.  However, at five months, it was superb.  I now fully understand the value of aging a brew.

To paraphrase Orson Welles, my new mantra is - I will not pour a brew before it is due.

[Captain 3 Droids]

26 minutes ago, Thagomizer said:

I just had a great taste revelation.  Sometimes when I bottle a batch, the tail end is too small for a pint, but suitable for a 12 oz. longneck.   I tend to set these aside and forget them.  Yesterday, I retrieved a longneck of Lawnmower Lager bottled in Feb. 26.  It was fabulous.  Lawnmower, even at three or four weeks is a great drink.  However, at five months, it was superb.  I now fully understand the value of aging a brew.

To paraphrase Orson Welles, my new mantra is - I will not pour a brew before it is due.

Your so correct, but then it’s those you kind of  forget about give the surprise. What I’m trying to say is long storage is quite acceptable with/high alcohol brews, stouts etc but would I generally risk a whole batch of say Lawn Mower Lager for 6mths plus? A good result.

To Orson Wells - l will pour a brew before it is due, to ensure it is not due.

[Thagomizer]

First of all, thank you for your constructive comments.

You are so right in that; different brews require different maturation times.  Too long of a storage for a light brew would be a mistake.  Too short a storage time for a stout or a heavy porter would be equally disappointing.  Finding the optimum ageing period for a brew is part of the art of brewing.  We experiment, share data and hope.

The BrewArt app is a great tool.  Obviously, much planning and effort has been expended in its development and maintenance.  However, enhancements could be made.  One of which is that the default "seasoning" time for a keg is 14 days.  This is so minimal as to be ridiculous.  If the default could be editable, it would help experienced brewers a great deal.  (I know that the individual times for the kegs are editable.)

As to Orson Welles, he made a wine commercial sometime in the 1980's in which he sonorously stated, "I will serve no wine before its time."  This was widely quoted (in a jocular manner) for several years.  I do not know if that wine commercial made it to Australia.

My own proclamation, that: I will not pour a brew before it is due, simply means that I will be more aware of the age of the brew.

[Dustin Frothman]

1 hour ago, Thagomizer said:

First of all, thank you for your constructive comments.

You are so right in that; different brews require different maturation times.  Too long of a storage for a light brew would be a mistake.  Too short a storage time for a stout or a heavy porter would be equally disappointing.  Finding the optimum ageing period for a brew is part of the art of brewing.  We experiment, share data and hope.

The BrewArt app is a great tool.  Obviously, much planning and effort has been expended in its development and maintenance.  However, enhancements could be made.  One of which is that the default "seasoning" time for a keg is 14 days.  This is so minimal as to be ridiculous.  If the default could be editable, it would help experienced brewers a great deal.  (I know that the individual times for the kegs are editable.)

As to Orson Welles, he made a wine commercial sometime in the 1980's in which he sonorously stated, "I will serve no wine before its time."  This was widely quoted (in a jocular manner) for several years.  I do not know if that wine commercial made it to Australia.

My own proclamation, that: I will not pour a brew before it is due, simply means that I will be more aware of the age of the brew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

although this value can be maually adjusted, 

What would you suggest setting the default value to?

It's got to fall to somewhere. They've set 14 days because in conventional home brewing wisdom this is the minimum amount of time to allow when using sugar to carbonate beer.

If they set it to 28 days then you'd still need to change it for some beers so it's relevance is only determined you.

If you wanted to get really smart you could pull the user reported data from the BrewPrints reviews programatically, find the median and set that as the default. But of course this relies on collecting enough data and not straying from the BrewArt recipe or methods. It's also completely subjective and thoroughly unscientific.

So I like the 14 day default ... 🤪

[Thagomizer]

2 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

What would you suggest setting the default value to?

It's got to fall to somewhere. They've set 14 days because in conventional home brewing wisdom this is the minimum amount of time to allow when using sugar to carbonate beer.

If they set it to 28 days then you'd still need to change it for some beers so it's relevance is only determined you.

If you wanted to get really smart you could pull the user reported data from the BrewPrints reviews programatically, find the median and set that as the default. But of course this relies on collecting enough data and not straying from the BrewArt recipe or methods. It's also completely subjective and thoroughly unscientific.

So I like the 14 day default ... 🤪

What I meant was to let me set my own default.  Let the app start with 14 days on the app's first opening use but allow users to change (and edit) that default for their own future brews.  Others could set whatever they like and would not have to edit each keg's finish date if they were content with their own selection.

In other words, the default setting should be editable by the user.  In terms of coding, this value would be changed to a user defined (but stored) variable rather than a fixed constant.  (There are already several user-dependent stored variables.)

This would only be a minor convenience.  I can certainly live with editing each keg.

[Dustin Frothman]

2 minutes ago, Thagomizer said:

What I meant was to let me set my own default.  Let the app start with 14 days on the app's first opening use but allow users to change (and edit) that default for their own future brews.  Others could set whatever they like and would not have to edit each keg's finish date if they were content with their own selection.

In other words, the default setting should be editable by the user.  In terms of coding, this value would be changed to a user defined (but stored) variable rather than a fixed constant.  (There are already several user-dependent stored variables.)

This would only be a minor convenience.  I can certainly live with editing each keg.

Yes I understood.

See my post in the other thread with some more suggestions.

[Captain 3 Droids]

I use a calendar via iPad to remind me when to dry hop eg if I’m going to dry hop at day 5 then I note this obviously 5 days from when I put the brew down. You could do this for conditioning dates for certain brews without mu+h effort.

[Thagomizer]

6 hours ago, Captain 3 Droids said:

I use a calendar via iPad to remind me when to dry hop eg if I’m going to dry hop at day 5 then I note this obviously 5 days from when I put the brew down. You could do this for conditioning dates for certain brews without mu+h effort.

Good idea, Captain.  You would set it up once for a brew and then act (or not) when the iPad dings you.  I use the iPad calendar for many things.

[Razovich]

Hi, I have had keg in conditioning for 4 weeks and in fridge to carbonate for 7 days now (10l ss keg). Just finding my first beer is really well carbonated but when I pour a second one seems fairly flat. Any thoughts 

[Captain 3 Droids]

29 minutes ago, Razovich said:

Hi, I have had keg in conditioning for 4 weeks and in fridge to carbonate for 7 days now (10l ss keg). Just finding my first beer is really well carbonated but when I pour a second one seems fairly flat. Any thoughts 

Carbonation of keg for 7 days is probably not enough, 1x a good number.

what is the gas pressure, what is the brew?

[Razovich]

1 hour ago, Captain 3 Droids said:

Carbonation of keg for 7 days is probably not enough, 1x a good number.

what is the gas pressure, what is the brew

12-13psi, Aztec cerveza. Ok thought a small keg would take less time.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

In my experience with 9.5l cornies, they are well carbonated after 48 hours @12 psi.

In fact, I've found them suitable enough for drinking in terms of carbonation after 24 hours. A week and it should be well and truly carbed up.