[Closed] Homebrew bitter - how long will it keep in the keg?

If it's all in the same barrel,it'll last up to 6-8 weeks in a cool place,but extra points for drinking it all in one go.
Ian

ta, what about the pet bottle idea, any mileage in that?

Ask someone who knows . .

Firstly , I guess you have brewed a bitter and the first 40 pints went , but only 1/4 of the second barrel was drunk ? Assuming this is the case and you DID have an inert gas blanket on top of the beer , probably last 3 - 5 weeks if kept below 9'C .

If you did not have any gas on top of the beer and let the air in , then that keg will probably only last 10 - 12 days . The air will have enough bacteria in it to turn the produt , although you will have live yeast cells active and some CO2 being produced with that much headspace you will struggle.

Now decanting into PET bottles , might give you an extra week , if you can keep them cool and out of direct sunlight . Some PET have barriers built in and are designed for keeping drinks fresh for months , some dont .

You might be lucky and get 3 weeks from your PETs , maybe more if you add a tiny amount of fresh yeast as that will fight the bacteria and absorb some of the free oxygen, might make it fizz up a touch too .

Coopers Brewery of Adelaide do 500ml PET bottles specifically designed for bottling home brew. Thankfully they're also available here, £11.99 for 24 from most good homebrew shops.
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Coopers_Pet_Bottles_Ox-Bar_24_x_500ml.html

I have a lager brew in one batch that is now ready to drink and a pale ale brew in another batch that's still on secondary fermentation

If you do get some of these, add a level teaspoon of sugar to each bottle AFTER filling then screw on the cap, let them have a secondary ferment & store for a week or 2 in a warm place, then another week or 2 in a cool place. They'll then be ready to drink at will and will be nicely carbonated, and the longer you leave them to mature, the better they'll be.

silly question - you have failed by leaving any in the barrels

Points off

thanks guys, bottles it is then,

i like the sound of a secondary ferment, will that make it stronger?

no, it's too late for that; all it does is carbonate the beer.

and another thing - only leave 3/4in or 2cm air above the beer in the bottle. leave too big a gap & the secondary fermentation will put the CO2 in the gap & not in the beear

actually, if you're going to the effort of bottling it, you may as well print some nice labels too...

http://start.beerlabelbuilder.com

pick a label from the myriad available; enter your own text and save the image as a JPEG; open up your favourite word processing package and find a suitable template, make lots of nice fancy beer labels. Cut them out, stick to the bottle with glue-stick or even with something as simple as milk

Secondary fermentation can benefit the ale by decanting it off the trub in the primary - the theory being that your brew will benefit from getting rid of this detritus. It's quite common to add hops into the secondary for some ales ('dry hopping the secondary') for even more bittery goodness.

thanks,

nice link john, i'll get some of those

Longest I've had is 2 months, without letting any air in as mentioned up there^

After around that point it grew mould, while sat in the pint glass right before my eyes.

Didn't taste very 'off' though 😛