this is a serious question, honest!

bomberns127 · Oct 23, 2011

how long will beer keep in a barrel?
i know the average answer im gonna get is not very long! lol
but i have 4 barrels and would like to get them all full with different ales but if the beer wont keep too long then its no point as im the only beer drinker in the house, it would save on bottling(cleaning ,capping) but bottles can be stored as barrels cant.

any sensible ideas as the length of time before the beer would be undrinkable?

cheers

Wendy1971 · Oct 23, 2011

We keep it for 6 months and its fine.

RobWalker · Oct 23, 2011

beer either degrades or gets better with age, generally. you're probably looking at 6 months like wendy says for optimum taste, and from then on it'll start to lose aroma if it's a beer to be drunk young. you could look into some beers that improve with age - that way you can fill up a keg or two with something and not have to worry about drinking it quickly!

Cider gets better with age and is almost never drunk young - just an idea :)

Moley · Oct 23, 2011

The only potential problem is any air in the headspace above the brew. Do you have a means of injecting carbon dioxide into the kegs? If you can give it a blast of CO2 and then ease the cap to purge the air, there's no reason why your beers shouldn't keep for many months. Alternatively, overprime and then release some pressure after a day or two.

RobWalker · Oct 23, 2011

dont forget that plastic is permeable enough (assuming these are plastic barrells) for beer to be gradually exposed to air...

bomberns127 · Oct 23, 2011

i have 3 kingkegs and 1 bard sphere with s30 connections on them all so injecting co2 isnt a problem, if 6 months is fine for beer to be in a barrel then woo hoo! looks like im gonna fill the lot.

Moley · Oct 23, 2011

If any of your kegs have got bottom taps, keep the CO2 pressure up and don't let them run flat. If air glugs back up through the tap and into the beer, that's when spoilage occurs and you need to drink it quickly.

As I use Cornelii and can only dispense by gas pressure, that problem doesn't arise, and I've certainly left beer in those for 6-9 months with no ill effects. Others will probably claim longer.

Aleman · Oct 24, 2011

Moley said:
Others will probably claim longer.

:whistle: Currently almost 3 years for my last batch of imperial stout.

I do know of brewers that have kept Durden Park IPA's in corny for 4 years.

Plastic pressure barrels . . . I've had a strong mild in one for 12 months with no issues

Wolverine · Oct 24, 2011

strong mild ? not very often those two words can be used to describe the same thing :?:

Moley · Oct 24, 2011

Mild hasn't always meant a malty but lightly hopped brown beer with OGs in the 1.030s. I haven't tried making either myself yet but Wheeler gives a couple of recipes for Gale's and Sarah Hughes which hark back to the Milds of yesteryear, OGs 1.054 and 1.058 respectively, and those might have seemed pretty tame if you went back to the turn of the last century.

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