How long will unpasteurized beer be ok in keg before tapping?

[jmark]

Stated differently, does unpasteurized beer go bad in the keg, assuming it remains refrigerated? If so, how long will it take? What are the general age parameters for kegged beer?

Thanks,

Mark

[Bruceski]

Tapped or un-tapped, I don't think there will be a difference there.

I buy un-pasteurized Kiltlifter from Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, Arizona and it routinely lasts 6 weeks. At least, that's how long it takes me to kick a half-barrel. It may go longer; I've heard some folks mention 90 days, but I don't know.

Does the brewery that made it have any advice?
Has it been refrigerated the whole time?
What's the story?

[psychodad]

I've kept commercial kegs as long as four months with no problem.

[jmark]

Thanks, guys. I'm getting 5.16's from Captain Lawrence brewery in Pleasantville, NY. I happen to like their IPA quite a lot. The last three times I've been there, the kegs were dated Sept 21. So I've had three in a row from that date. I guess that makes this most recent one, picked up yesterday, just under two months old. (In case you're thinking I drink a lot of beer... I do. But seriously, I have social events at the house fairly often, just friends, and I share a lot of beer, too.) I was just a little disappointed with this last one that there hasn't been a more recent batch. I didn't notice the date until I got it home, so I didn't ask about it. The beer tastes pretty good (just tapped it tonight, after letting it get to temperature for 24 hrs). I was just wondering how long people generally think an untapped keg of unpasteurized local beer would last. And yes, it was refrigerated the whole time, at the brewery (although they don't keep them as cold in the cooler as I would have thought, maybe upper 40's).

Thanks,

Mark

[Bruceski]

Maybe if you call ahead (2 weeks or more) they will keg you a new one. Four Peaks provides me extra perks because, as the manager told me, "I work for a brewery. Of course I want to sell beer!" Introduce yourself and have a chat with the Mgr.

[jmark]

Good thinking. I'm sort of in touch with the owner of the brewery. Even invited him to our local "book club" (drinking club). I think I'll work on getting a little bit more info and consideration in terms of kegs going forward. Although I am kind of moving toward home brewing...

[jmark]

I've kept commercial kegs as long as four months with no problem.

BTW, dad, are you talking about unpasteurized beer? When you say commercial kegs, do you mean like, Bud or something? Or do you mean craft beers? I would guess there would be a difference, which I assume is a pasteurization issue? No?

[cubby_swans]

First, it depends on what you mean by going bad. Going bad as in bacteria infected, or going bad as in it just tastes no good because it's old beer. The former is not automatic, and is not likely to happen at all. But there's always the possibility that something did not get sanitized properly in packaging. The latter depends on the beer style and whether or not the beer ages well, for flavor profiles. Most beers do not age well, but some can be aged for years at cellar temperatures and can be amazing.

First let's not talk about American Macro Lagers and pasteurization vs not. They are best consumed fresh. The brewers put kegged or best by dates on them for a reason. Aside from that, age parameters for kegged beers are no different than bottled craft beers. It mainly depends on the type of beer. In most cases, neither bottled or kegged craft beers are pasteurized. Pasteurization in the beer world has little to do with killing off bacteria.

For most beers, they do not go rotten like a glass of milk or chunk of meat left out of the fridge for days. They go 'bad' simply because the flavor profiles degrade to a point where the beer becomes undesirable to drink. You could still drink it, and it won't make you ill by any means. It simply won't taste good. Refrigeration slows this aging process down. More precisely, heat speeds the aging process up. So the colder a beer is stored, the longer it's flavor profile will be preserved. Don't freeze it, though.

If you're getting a keg of something like an imperial stout, barleywine, strong ale, gueze, lambic, or one of the other few styles that often age well, you can leave it for months to years at cool basement/cellar temperatures and it will be fine to drink. Barring the rare infection possibility. It's a very small risk.

[jmark]

Cubby, thanks for the very thorough reply. Much appreciated. Although, honestly, I'm not sure I understood all of it.

[cubby_swans]

Cubby, thanks for the very thorough reply. Much appreciated. Although, honestly, I'm not sure I understood all of it.

Summary: There is a huge misconception about draft (non-pasteurized) beer in that it's going to spoil like rotten meat the instant it gets warm for 2 seconds. This is simply not the case.