so I’ve been reading about being able to have a kegged beer carbbed in a very short time. does a kegged beer not need the same amount of time to mature as a bottle conditioned beer? I’ve made C. slobber and testing it at two weeks vs three weeks is amazing. if i kegged it, would it be amazing after only 3 days out will it just be carbbed?
The process of a beer maturing and flavors melding is not sped up by force carbing in a keg. The beer will still taste better after a few weeks in the keg. The beer will clear much quicker because it’s being stored much cooler and there is no second fermentation taking place to create the C02.
Of course each beer is different and some of them taste better as fresh as possible so kegging actually works to their benefit.
Full disclosure: I have never kegged so this is just based on talking to other people who have.
[quote=“mattnaik”]The process of a beer maturing and flavors melding is not sped up by force carbing in a keg. The beer will still taste better after a few weeks in the keg. The beer will clear much quicker because it’s being stored much cooler and there is no second fermentation taking place to create the C02.
Of course each beer is different and some of them taste better as fresh as possible so kegging actually works to their benefit.
Full disclosure: I have never kegged so this is just based on talking to other people who have.[/quote]
+1
This has been my experience. I have bottled and now keg. I notice a difference from the beginning to the end of the keg, more so if the keg lasts longer than usual.
that’s about what i figured…so, why would someone do a rush carb on a beer (other than maybe a wheat or an emergency)?
and that’s brings me to another question. Every beer that I have made that lasts longer than two weeks changes over time (sometimes drastically). I mean I can taste a difference from week to week, so how are commercial brewers able to keep their consistency? I can’t ever remember thinking “wow, this Coors light tastes better than the one I had last week” Is it the filtration maybe? I’m just having a hard time understanding why my beer changes constantly, others change over long periods of time (beer stored in a cellar) and others seem to stay exactly the same forever.
[quote=“sputnam”]that’s about what i figured…so, why would someone do a rush carb on a beer (other than maybe a wheat or an emergency)?
and that’s brings me to another question. Every beer that I have made that lasts longer than two weeks changes over time (sometimes drastically). I mean I can taste a difference from week to week, so how are commercial brewers able to keep their consistency? I can’t ever remember thinking “wow, this Coors light tastes better than the one I had last week” Is it the filtration maybe? I’m just having a hard time understanding why my beer changes constantly, others change over long periods of time (beer stored in a cellar) and others seem to stay exactly the same forever.[/quote]
Commercial beers remove the biological activity, i.e. they remove the yeast by “cold filtering” or pasteurization. Homebrew still has a small amount of yeast that continues to work in the keg or bottle.
On a side note, heat (pasteurization) is the enemy of hops, it starts to break down the oils which causes rancidity or skunked beer. The counter balance of this is to create a marketing campaign that your beer needs to be fresh and/or super cold when you drink it.
[quote=“sputnam”]that’s about what i figured…so, why would someone do a rush carb on a beer (other than maybe a wheat or an emergency)?
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Your logic is sound IMO. This is why I use the “set it and forget it” approach to force carbonating my kegs. Two or more weeks in cold storage will be beneficial to the beer, unless it has already been though a meaningful bulk aging period. In my experience, kegged beer matures quite a bit faster than bottled beer–but this is mainly thanks to cold storage–which you can do while carbonating, unlike bottle conditioning.
