Warm beer or disturbed sediment?.. That, is the question.

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NickW

Landlord.
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Hey guys,

After racking my beer into the pressure barrell. I obviously need to leave it a week or two to settle and hopefully a secondary fementation.

Although, I've left it in the dining room at the mo, which is between 12'c-16'c - fair enough.

But what about when it comes to drinking it at new years? It's gonna be warm beer! - and I'm dubious about moving it to the outhouse to cool down, then having to bring it back in just before the guests arrive, as I dont want to disturb the sediment!

- Do you guys drink yours warm/cold?
- and is it worth worrying about disturbing the sediment?

:cheers:
 
if your barrel has a float in it so that beer is taken from near the top, rather than near the bottom, then you could persuade your guests to help you very carefully move it indoors when they arrive. By the time you get to the bottom of the barrel i don't think too many will notice a little cloudiness :D you will tho and you may not like that! if you and your guests want it cold and from the barrel then sending out intrepid beer troopers with big plastic pop bottles to fill up for everyone else staying warm inside could be the way to go. People like playing with homebrew toys so volunteers will probably be plentiful.

personally i like beer at or around room temperature.
 
thinking about this a little more .... new years ... likely that your guests will arrive with a little booze onboard already. it'll only take one well-intentioned but slightly clumsy guest to mess up all your hard work with a stumble or whatever. that would be a shame, and worse still they would probably still want to drink it and that could leave your rep in tatters! Plastic bottles or warm beer i guess or can you put your barrel right outside your back door without any problems from curious neighbours or passing folks? or what about that chilly loft?
 
Generally I like my beers at around 12c - one option you have is to wrap a cold damp towel around the keg a couple of hours before your guests arrive, this will cool the keg as the water evaporates ;) just keep swapping the towel over periodically :thumb:
 
Alternatively if it's cold enough in the outhouse the yeast should form into a pretty solid layer so it wouldn't matter too much if you moved it a little.

What yeast did you use?
 
Some good answers!

In terms of putting the keg in the outhouse - wont that stop the secondary fermentation?

actually - by the time its new years that will have ceased anyway?
 
crE said:
In terms of putting the keg in the outhouse - wont that stop the secondary fermentation?

A few days in the warm then a couple of days in the outhouse should sort it out in these temperatures, actually 24 hours at near freezing should have it star bright and the yeast will be stuck to the bottom of the keg like the proverbial to a blanket :lol:
 
when i move my demijohns around at racking time i find that little knocks and bumps don't disturb the sediment much. The bigger mischief is caused by rotating them (so i don't anymore ;) ), the relative movement of the liquid/sediment (and bottle) lifts the top very fine layer.

if you are gonna move it, then how far? any tricky obstacles like steps, ponds and random rosebushes :lol:
 
percival said:
when i move my demijohns around at racking time i find that little knocks and bumps don't disturb the sediment much. The bigger mischief is caused by rotating them (so i don't anymore ;) ), the relative movement of the liquid/sediment (and bottle) lifts the top very fine layer.

I've always found wine yeasts to form very unstable sediments not like some of the sticky ale yeasts
 
yep, even from my dim and distant memory of beer brewing days i can remember sediments in bottles being easy to handle.
 
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