Beer Forum

I brewed a Fat Tire clone for my uncle and I don't have room in my fridges to store it at right now. He's not ready for it yet and the recipe says it needs to age for 28 days @ 52F. I have it in the house right now at 72F. You could fit my knowledge on aging in a thimble - all I know about it is warming the beer to 50-52 speeds up the aging process a bit, rather than letting it sit at serve temps for a long time. Any drawbacks from aging 1-2 weeks at 73F? I do remember a BrewStrong episode that says for every 10C you raise the storage temp of beer it cuts the shelf life dramatically (in half maybe?). Any off flavors or problems with bumping it up another 20 degrees F and cutting back the time a bit? I racked it off the yeast cake but I'm sure there is enough left in suspension to possibly dry out a bit more, which will be fine with him. The Hydro sample was still plenty sweet.

1.054 OG
1.013 FG
Wyeast American Ale II

If your brewing and kegging process was very sanitary, you should be fine. Beer oxidizes faster at room temp, but if your brewing practices are good you won't have any problems leaving it out at room temp for a couple of weeks. It's always good to purge a keg with CO2 before racking to fight oxidation.

Cold conditioning is a good way to drop yeast and particulate before serving, but it's not strictly necessary.

Thanks Chupa.

Well, it was as sanitary as I could do with what I had. It's my Uncle's keg and the first time I dealt with a half barrel 15.5 Gallon keg. After rinsing and brushing with a carboy brush as best I could (it wasn't crusty or dried) I heated 3 gallons of PBW inside the keg to 130F, and brushed with a carboy brushi. Reinstalled the diptube and shook the hell out of it and dis assembled, brushed again. I rinsed it with about 3 gallons of water 4 times, shaking and rolling. Then I put 5 gallons of idophore (sp) solution and rolled it around, set it upside down, right side up for 10 minutes each, drained and capped the hole with foil until I was ready to rack.

I am set-up to rack by CO2 push from carboy to the out-post on a corny, but this was the first time I racked to a half barrel. I didn't have a sankey adapter so I just blew CO2 into the keg (with the dip tube removed) and placed a sanitized hose inside to minimize splashing as best I could and covered with foil during transfer. I really hated to do that without the adapter, but he is on vacation and I had to move the beer. I am a little worried about oxidation, so I'll get it chilled as soon as I can.

How long should I age it if it sits in a 35F-40F fridge if it called for 28 days at 52F? Until it tastes good? He's got about a half keg of hefe right now, so he should be ready for this in a couple to 3 weeks.

Well I'm usually pulling samples of my beer before it's ready, so I'd suggest doing the same. Not only will you pull any yeast or schmegma off the bottom of the keg, but it will be a learning experience to see how your beer progresses over time.

I just put a trippel, a dubbel and a saison that were in my guest bedroom closet for 4,5 and 6 months and they show no signs of oxidation, etc.

My uncle is back and he cleared a spot in the fridge. The beer is in more favorable environs - 52F.

Does anybody have a link to a good read on aging?

Brim2theDregs wrote:
Does anybody have a link to a good read on aging?

Here you go: http://www.aarpmagazine.org/