read this micromatic website page...

[cubby_swans]

read this page.....

http://www.micromatic.com/beer-questions/pasteurized-and-non-pasteurized-keg-beer-aid-45.html

It says that bacteria ferments the beer. What? I'm pretty sure yeast ferments the beer.

[shane34652]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm 99% sure yeast is a bacteria. It comsumes sugar and its waste product is alchol. This being said that is not the only bacteria in beer. All this bacteria remain alive in unpasturized draft beer. So proper storage to keep these bacteria dormant in necessary to keep the taste right and keep the beer from going through a secondary fermintation. The pasturization process kills these bacteria allowing for a longer shelf life, however, any time you heat up beer you affect the taste. That is why draft almost always taste differant from bottles. Imported kegs have to be pasturized because of the long trips they take to get here. sSome may have over 2 months just to make it to the retailer.

[psychodad]

I think this is one of those "your mileage may vary" things and this information is likely more important for commercial bars than home tappers.

For us home tappers, if our keg made it to the store we bought it from handled and stored properly and we consume it within a reasonable time frame we won't have problems. I had a commercial keg tapped once for about three months and it was fine the whole time. Any off flavors or loss of freshness were minimal. Also this change would have been gradual likely making it less noticeable.

Now were we to keep a spare keg ready to tap in the garage, there may be a difference. But I'm not sure how much. I have a spare keg in my closet of unpasteurized home brew at all times. And it seems the longer that keg sits before tapping the better it is.

A commercial bar on the other hand that orders several kegs, would likely notice more of a loss of quality after killing a keg and replacing it with one stored in a hot store room for a week or two.

[cubby_swans]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm 99% sure yeast is a bacteria.

yeast is a fungi. It's not a bacteria.