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Author Topic: shelf life  (Read 1474 times)

Offline redzim

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shelf life
« on: August 19, 2014, 03:19:39 pm »
What is the shelf life, at room temp, of bottles filled from carbed kegs...  I am wondering, because I have some leftover bottles I filled for comps, and would like to keep them a while to compare to future batches of the same recipe... do I need to keep them refrigerated, or is 60F or so fine for them?  My beers are pretty fully attenuated and force carbed as well as fined in the keg with Biofine so I am pretty sure there is no viable yeast in there. 

I imagine that careful filling with a counterpressure filler and CO2 purging would extend the shelf life and prevent oxidation, but these bottles are just filled from a keg with a piece of hose stuck over a pony tap.

Offline Stevie

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Re: shelf life
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2014, 03:23:38 pm »
Depends on the beer. Lower temps will slow down staling and oxidation.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: shelf life
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2014, 03:27:14 pm »
+1 to Steve.

How long is a piece of string? I've got barley wines in the closet that I filled from a keg a year ago and they are still going fine. a wit beer wouldn't last as long.
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: shelf life
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2014, 03:46:16 pm »
+1 to all the above. Cold temps for standard to low OG beers especially.
Jon H.

Offline brewinhard

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Re: shelf life
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2014, 02:34:11 pm »
I do many beer trades with local brew buddies and we mostly fill them for trading as you mentioned above.  Normal gravity beers typical will last in the fridge for at least 1 mos and show no oxidation signs.  Stronger and darker beers will last longer especially if kept cold.  Using a beer gun or counter pressure filler with bottle purging will obviously keep much longer than the quicker method.