Beer Forum

Before anyone redirects me, I have diligently searched through the whole forum looking for answers. Some have partly answered my question but not to the point where I understand it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I have been bottling for about 10 years now and I must admit that I have not really looked into the kegging part of home brewing too much due to the Military moving me around the world every couple of years. Bottles are easy to find in foreign countries, CO2 is not. So can someone please tell me why my bottles take longer to be ready to drink than someone who kegs. Same recipe, 7 days primary, 7-10 days secondary, 2 weeks in bottle OR 2-3 days in keg and ready to drink. Why? Does the CO2 some how speed up the maturation period of beer or what? I don't mean the carbonation either. I mean the actually drinkability of the beer. If I was to drink one of my bottles 2-3 days after, it would be horrible. Please help me understand this.

the main difference would be the priming necessary for bottling. when bottling you have to wait for another fermentation to take place inside the bottle, and that can take a number of days for that to complete and for the yeast to clean up after themselves. of course with kegging the transferred beer is fermented out, but one must wait for the carbonation volume to be reached. either way i think with either method there isn't much difference and almost all beers will benefit with a week or two (or more, especially with darker beers) of cold conditioning.

jeremybrown_9 wrote: I don't mean the carbonation either. I mean the actually drinkability of the beer. If I was to drink one of my bottles 2-3 days after, it would be horrible.

Keep in mind that carbonation will impact the flavor and perception of the beer, also bottle conditioned beer also has a dose of sugar in it, which changes the flavor.

Beltbuckle nailed it. Bottling means you have to wait for CO2 to be produced, then absorbed into solution. Kegging means you are taking already produced CO2 and absorbing into solution.

Some folks prime and naturally ferment in kegs too.
I think that the natural ferment with the remaining yeast from the secondary does more than just carbonate. I think it' cleans up any off flavors and diacetyl and contributes to the beers maturation.

I've read that filtered beer just sitting around in the keg also can see the the same functions performed but have not seen a good explanation of the process.

I have a kegging set up but I have not yet used it.

Cliff wrote:Some folks prime and naturally ferment in kegs too.
I think that the natural ferment with the remaining yeast from the secondary does more than just carbonate. I think it' cleans up any off flavors and diacetyl and contributes to the beers maturation.
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It'll also help reduce any oxygen introduced to the beer during the transfer process.

Wouldnt the second fermentation in the bottle create more fermentation flavors that then have to be conditioned out?

The fermentation the carbonates the beer typically isn't going to be very large, and won't really produce different fermentation characters (unless there are bugs or wild yeast). For example, fermenting with WLP001, then adding... say a Hefe yeast at bottling isn't going to give you a beer that tastes of banana and cloves just from fermenting the priming addition.