At the Hoppy Brewer, we offer a variety of kegs. Keep us in mind next time you plan to a party or event and are looking to order a keg. Review these tips, tricks, and rules to get the most out of your next keg!
Keg Tips, Tricks, and Rules to Remember
Keep it Calm
After any sort of transport or travel, give your keg some time to settle down. If you don’t, you’re likely to experience excessive foaming at tapping time. Remember that the beer inside of a keg is carbonated, so moving or shaking it will cause it to foam – just like a can of beer or soda. We recommend that you let your keg sit for an hour or so after transport.
Keep it Cold
Keg beer is unpasteurized, so it has to stay cold to stay good. As a general rule, think of keg beer as you think of milk: it needs to be refrigerated at all times. Keep your kegs between 34 – 40 degrees Fahrenheit and your beer will remain fresh and delicious.
Keep it Fresh
The beer inside a keg will retain its full flavor about 30 – 45 days after tapping. It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact amount of time, as a keg’s “shelf-life” is dependent on storage conditions and the brand/style of the beer. Generally, hoppy beers and those with a higher alcohol content will last longer because the hops and alcohol act as preservatives, inhibiting the growth of bacteria.
Keep it Clean
When beer does go bad quickly, it’s almost always one (or both) of two culprits: oxygen and/or bacteria. Unfortunately, bacteria will eventually spoil unpasteurized keg beer – even when the keg is kept in the perfect storage conditions.
Modern scientists have discovered that the only way to beat the bacteria is to drink all of the beer in your keg, before the bacteria has a chance to ruin it – usually in that 30 – 45 day range. Should you require critical consumption assistance, KegWorks research has found that good friends are usually willing to help.
The other culprit, oxygen, is particularly harmful to kegs tapped with a hand pump. A hand pump forces air (containing oxygen) into the keg, which in turn, forces the beer out. This is good. However, as soon as the oxygen is introduced in the keg, it causes the chemical reaction called oxidation.
Oxidation will cause the beer inside of a keg to go flat and acquire a sort of sour taste. Thus, a keg tapped with a hand pump should be consumed within 24 hours. Thankfully, neither of these processes render beer harmful to humans, but they do make it undrinkable.
Call The Hoppy Brewer at 503.328.8474 to order a keg today.
SRC: Click to learn more about How Kegs Work.