Kegging temp & Maturing

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Hi All,

Need a little help here if you dont mind, as I'm getting in a pickle.

Basically, I've just brewed up an British bitter (ale) and it did a two week ferment at 21C. I've now kegged it into one of my soda kegs and pressurized it to .6 bar to carbonate over a week slowly. Now my question is at what temp should the keg be kept at so any off flavours fade, the beer starts to clear and the remaining yeast eats the left overs and then settles?

Is there a general role here? as i'm going to be kegging a pilsner and a stout in a few weeks time as well. Dont want to mess them all up at this stage.

Thanks
 
Generally it’s advised to chill your beer before carbonating, because cold liquid absorbs more CO2 than warm liquid. Look up ‘force carb chart.’ There is a formula for how much CO2 liquid will hold, depending on liquid temp and regulator pressure.
 
Thanks for that tip.

But once you have carbonated the keg, at what temp then should you leave your beer in? will the yeast continue to eat the remaining items when the keg is sat at 10c or should it be kept warmer?
 
Yeast definitely slows down the colder it gets. If you keg your beer before it’s done fermenting everything it can, then you’ll need to let it sit at a warmer temp to finish. How long would depend on how much your rushing to get it kegged. Cold and time will help your beer clear. After 2 weeks, the yeast is probably 95% done or better now. If it were mine, I’d chill then carb it, then leave it chilled. You’ll have CO2 going back out of the beer if you let it warm up after chilling and carbing. Then it’ll take time to let it infuse again when you want to chill to serve. If you’d like, I’ll tell you what I would do in your shoes, based on your keezer size (how many kegs do you have on tap), number of kegs you have, etc. For instance I have a keezer that holds 8 kegs. 6 are on tap, so there are 2 on deck, waiting their turn (conditioning).
 
Thanks Jeff

You're a great help.

I don't have a great amount of kegerator space. I have bought two old fridges and converted them to do my fermentation by using STC's.
My brew shed is normally sitting around 10C to 12C where I live in Amsterdam, so my kegged beers have so far been left in that temp for now. Do you think thats ok?

Plans, time and money I wish to build a purpose kegerator only for my kegs at some point. But I just wish to master the basics first as I'm teaching myself currently
 
Im a bit lost on where your kegs will be when you’re serving from them. In the 10-12C environment? Will you be serving them at that temp? If you like beer at that temp, it’ll work. You’ll have to pressurize your keg accordingly, per the chart I referenced earlier. Foam might be a problem, so a longer liquid line will help. There’s a science to that, too.

Or will your ferm chamber double as a keezer? If so, you probably won’t get good pours the first couple days, as the CO2 dissolves into the beer. But I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. Personally, I’d forget about a ferm chamber for ales, as long as you have room temp around 19-20 C. Just ferment there, and use the fridge to serve.
 
Thanks Jeff

You're a great help.

I don't have a great amount of kegerator space. I have bought two old fridges and converted them to do my fermentation by using STC's.
My brew shed is normally sitting around 10C to 12C where I live in Amsterdam, so my kegged beers have so far been left in that temp for now. Do you think thats ok?

Plans, time and money I wish to build a purpose kegerator only for my kegs at some point. But I just wish to master the basics first as I'm teaching myself currently

I have 2x 19L & 1x 9L sodakegs, I'm currently waiting for a tap to be delivered so I can then tap beer from my kegerator
 
Basically my plan was this.

Run one fridge to ferment my beer and run the second as a keezer

Now I'm new to brewing and want to practice a lot, thus I keep running out of space and both my fridges are getting used for fermenting as thats critical. Due to that the couple times I've kegged I've left the beers in the shed which sits around 10c recently its been down to 4C due to winter.

Now what temp should a keezer be at? so you get a nice cold beer with out the foaming, as I've indeed struggled with that.
 
The keezer temp should be your serving temp. I think mine is set to 2C. Again, there’s a science to the foaming. Use the force carb chart to determine the regulator pressure for your desired carbonation level. A longer beer line will help minimize foaming. There’s science to that, too. And make sure you open your valve completely. If you crack your valve open, thinking you’ll minimize foaming, you’ll just get more. The only foam I get is from what’s in the line, between the keg and the valve. From there, it’s smooth pouring. My second glass would have no foam, if I were immediately pouring another one.
 
That question has allot of answers, many different variables to think of, where are your taps? How warm are they? How far from the kegs, are you conditioning in the keezer or just serving

the best I've found for a standard freezer type is first get the better faucets, use 8 to 10' of 3/16 id hose, try to keep your faucets cold, as for temperature if your conditioning and carbing, use 34F, if your just serving use 40ish
 
I've stored pressurized kegs for months so that shouldn't be an issue. Once you fill it with CO2 though I doubt any smells are going to disperse, but time will mellow flavours. My keezer is at 3.5C but that was just what I set it at when I started and I don't care enough to change it.
 

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