Bottle aging vs. Extra-long Secondary

wolfie7873

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Last year I made a saison, bottle conditioned it for three months and was very happy with it. Since then I've upgraded to a kegerator and was wondering how one might keg something typically bottle conditioned. My plan is to just rack to secondary at the appropriate time and then put the vessel somewhere temperature stable for the next three months and then keg it. Will this work? Or is there some magic to the sugar addition that I'll miss out on?
 
Re: Bottle aging vs. Extra-long Secondar

seems to me that the little bit of sugar keeps the yeast hanging on and working whatever Magic for just a little bit longer. In the keg, I'd think they'd go dormant or die quicker.

I don't keg, but could you add some sugar to it before you cellar it? Doesn't seem like there'd be a risk of the thing exploding, and you could vent it every once in a bit if it gets too carbed
 
Have you considered just kegging the beer with the appropriate amount of priming sugar for carbonation letting it condition in the keg the same as in bottles? Might take minimal CO2 pressure to seal the keg.
 
Charlie's books seem to talk more about priming the kegs with sugar than force carbing. Maybe just think of the keg as one big bottle?
 
wolfie7873 said:
Last year I made a saison, bottle conditioned it for three months and was very happy with it. Since then I've upgraded to a kegerator and was wondering how one might keg something typically bottle conditioned. My plan is to just rack to secondary at the appropriate time and then put the vessel somewhere temperature stable for the next three months and then keg it. Will this work? Or is there some magic to the sugar addition that I'll miss out on?

I know what you mean with the difference in crispness and mouthfeel between bottling and kegged beer. No reason you shouldn't be able to bottle condition in the keg. It should give you the same result. Maybe just ad your sugar as you would for the bottle and rack it in the keg, place it where you normally put bottles for conditioning. Only downfall is the keg is tied up for 3 months waiting and waiting and waiting... :)
 
Head First said:
Only downfall is the keg is tied up for 3 months waiting and waiting and waiting... :)
Yeah, but so are the bottles, so that's a draw!
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
what type of kegerator, how many kegs can it hold

Upright refrigerator. Holds 4. I have 6 kegs with plans for a keezer build soon that will hold 8.

Sounds like the crowd says bottle age in the keg. I can work with that.
 
I've done it when I didn't have space in the kegerator. Works out nice that way. Just add the appropriate amount of priming sugar and forget it for a bit.
 
I wouldn't let yeast mess up your keg thats what C02 is for, all you need to do is cold crash and let sit on CO2 for 2 weeks
 
I just did the experiment, natural carb on the keg vs forced. I did it on a nut brown fermented with TYB Midwestern Ale; it worked beautifully, I got in the natural carbed keg the same flavor profile that bottles got, whereas the force carbed beer was a completely different beast, more neutral and somewhat boring in comparison.
 
After reading a lot about traditional saisons, I've decided not to age it at all. It's going from secondary to crash to keg and consumed fresh. We'll see how good it tastes.
 

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