storing filled kegs

[Munimula]

thanks for the info guys.

[scotchpine]

Great info in this thread. I'm curious about weather or not to fully carb a barleywine (or similar style) for long term room temp aging in a corny. I get applying 30 psi to seal, but does it need to be fully carbed to not loose that seal over long term. Any reason this type of beer would benefit from this aging process in an uncarbed state? I have'nt done a braleywine since I've been kegging, but plan to brew one this fall.

[Ozwald]

It doesn't need to be fully carbonated, it only needs positive pressure to seal & remain so. That being said if you overcarb slightly, you'll be on the safe side & can bring it down to the volumes you're looking for very quickly when it's time to serve.

[brewinhard]

Just be sure your poppet valve seals are good so you don't have 5 gallons of barleywine on your basement floor. Ask me how I know about that one!

[Ozwald]

Just be sure your poppet valve seals are good so you don't have 5 gallons of barleywine on your basement floor. Ask me how I know about that one!

This is why I completely disassemble & ... oh geez ... like to touch all my rubber with lube every time I clean them. Now if we were talking about confirming the faucet was fully closed before hooking up a new keg... well that's just a different story.

[maltseeker]

Has anyone done any experiments in this area? I have only been bottling until my last two batches but that gave me the opportunity to taste a variety of my beers over long periods of time. All of my beers ( none are "hop forward" types) have benefited from at least 4 months of aging at room temperature. This includes Scottish ales, brown ales, Belgian dubbels, wheat beers, cream ale - not all of these were dark beers but all were at least 1.06 OG. A few of my recent session beers were ready earlier. What I don't want to do is extend my aging time significantly by storing cooler. Any more thoughts on storing temp effects and trade offs?

[spiderwrangler]

Storing bottle conditioned beers warmer is necessary because you need the yeast to be active enough to carbonate the beer.

[brewinhard]

Has anyone done any experiments in this area? I have only been bottling until my last two batches but that gave me the opportunity to taste a variety of my beers over long periods of time. All of my beers ( none are "hop forward" types) have benefited from at least 4 months of aging at room temperature. This includes Scottish ales, brown ales, Belgian dubbels, wheat beers, cream ale - not all of these were dark beers but all were at least 1.06 OG. A few of my recent session beers were ready earlier. What I don't want to do is extend my aging time significantly by storing cooler. Any more thoughts on storing temp effects and trade offs?

Definitely keeping your beer as cold as possible for long term aging is the best way to go. You may even be able to have them tasting better, earlier by keeping them cold as well. The cold temps drop out many unstable parts of the beer (hop/protein haze/polyphenols) as well as yeast, leaving behind a more rounded mouthfeel in the beer. In addition your beer will stay fresher, longer, in the untimely event that you can't make it to your beer as fast as you wish. At least that is what I have observed.