Typically I leave my beer in the carboy right up until it’s ready to be kegged, carbed and served. But I’m wondering if I can simply transfer to my keg for conditioning right after fermentation is done. In other words, say after 5 or so days after pitching. Is there any drawback to this approach? Or any reason I should leave in carboy?
I will typically leave my beer in a primary or secondary fermenter for a week or two after fermentation has completed so that the yeast drops out there instead of in my keg. The cleaner the beer is that goes into your keg, the lower the possibility of off flavors from the yeast \ autolysis if you are going to store the beer for a while.
I do it routinely, especially when my kegerator is full. I typically leave my beers for 3 weeks in primary, then keg. If a keg is filled but not in rotation, it sits at room temp.
You could wait til fermentation is done, then transfer. Like you said, after ~5 days.
You could also transfer it early and see if the beer will carbonate naturally in the keg with out additional sugar. Buying, or making, one of these
will help keeping the keg from over carbonating.
Either way you will end up with a bit more sediment in the keg. Compared to letting it sit in a carboy/pail for 2-3 weeks. After sitting in the keg for a couple weeks, you can jumper it to a fresh keg to leave the sediment behind.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]You could wait til fermentation is done, then transfer. Like you said, after ~5 days.
Either way you will end up with a bit more sediment in the keg. Compared to letting it sit in a carboy/pail for 2-3 weeks. After sitting in the keg for a couple weeks, you can jumper it to a fresh keg to leave the sediment behind.[/quote]
But if I crash the keg before serving, wont must of the sediment come out in the first few pints?
[quote=“Chris-P”]
But if I crash the keg before serving, wont must of the sediment come out in the first few pints?[/quote]
Yes, and no.
The yeast/sediment will cover the bottom of the keg. The 1st glass will get sediment from ~1-2" around the dip tube. If you move the keg around, you will disturb the sediment and the next glass will contain more sediment.
Why would you want to pull off the yeast that fast? Just because it’s done fermenting doesn’t mean it has finished cleaning up. Let the beer do its thing then go directly to keg.
I get 2-4 weeks>keg. I think five days (unless you are doing a mild or ordinary bitter) is too short of a time to on the yeast cake.
[quote=“muddywater_grant”]Why would you want to pull off the yeast that fast? Just because it’s done fermenting doesn’t mean it has finished cleaning up. Let the beer do its thing then go directly to keg.
[/quote]
My understanding was that the yeast doing the cleanup are in solution. So it wouldn’t matter if you transferred off the yeast cake b/c the yeast would still be in solution and would finish their cleanup in the keg.
Let me know if I’m mistaken.
[quote=“Chris-P”][quote=“muddywater_grant”]Why would you want to pull off the yeast that fast? Just because it’s done fermenting doesn’t mean it has finished cleaning up. Let the beer do its thing then go directly to keg.
[/quote]
My understanding was that the yeast doing the cleanup are in solution. So it wouldn’t matter if you transferred off the yeast cake b/c the yeast would still be in solution and would finish their cleanup in the keg.
Let me know if I’m mistaken.[/quote]
But you just said you were going to cold crash/condition the keg. You just made the yeast drop out. Plus they do a better job doing this at higher temps. Think d-rest.
[quote=“muddywater_grant”][quote=“Chris-P”][quote=“muddywater_grant”
But you just said you were going to cold crash/condition the keg. You just made the yeast drop out. Plus they do a better job doing this at higher temps. Think d-rest.[/quote][/quote]
Sorry, I was unclear. I wouldn’t immediately crash the keg, I would probably let it sit at room temp for a week or two and then crash. That should give the yeast enough time to do their cleanup before i drop them out of solution.
The goal for me is to free up my carboys, I have a limited number.
Yes, I know I can always buy more.
I think the yeast cake still works on the beer to some extent. Also, I’ve found that racking to secondary seems to cause the yeast to drop out of solution faster. I wouldn’t rack after five days unless it was a small beer fermented with a British ale yeast that drops out fast anyway.
To your original question, yes a keg is a fine secondary container. If you get too much yeast, you can always transfer to another keg with a jumper once the stuff settles.
