Hello, New geordie kit brew, and a couple of questions.

[garysig]

I've just bought a heap of Youngs home brew gear and tonight I've started my first brew - a Geordie kit.

I've spent the last couple of days reading these forums and I have a question about bottling.

I've bought a 5 gallon pressure barrel. It seems easier than individual bottling but I'm not really sure why the general preference is to bottle? And why that preference tends to be for glass bottles rather than, say, 1 litre plastic bottles (old schwepps tonic bottles, for instance)

My impression seems to be that kegs start going off (and flat) the moment a few pints have been drunk from them due to the air that forms in the top? That and bottles are easier to handle, store, move around? Why the preference for glass over plastic, simply that glass is more authentic?

Looking forward to it already...

Gary

[garysig]

Also, Should I leave the lid on the FV? I only have an inch of room at the top of the vessel for head so I've rested the lid on the top for now, but it's worrying me!

Gary

[Mogwyth]

I bottle because I would never get through the 40 pints they typical kit makes before it would go off in a keg. Why glass plastic seems so cheap to me and I don't think the beer tastes as good either, could be just psychological.

I would worry an 1" is not a lot of room most of the kits I have done, have as a minimum a couple inches of foam on top some up to 4 inches I use 30 litre FVs and a 23 litre brew can hit the top.

[garysig]

Cheers Mogwyth.

How long does a keg take to go off if stored somewhere cool?

Last time I bought some ale from a brewery it came in a cardboard box that contained a plastic bladder / polypin. Even that had a pretty short expiry on it, but that was around Christmas time so I didn't get to find out whether it did go off!

Can I skim excess foam off the top every now and then?

[Lillywhite]

How long does a keg take to go off if stored somewhere cool?

Can I skim excess foam off the top every now and then?

Some brewers have had beer in a keg for up to 12 months. If it still has a covering of CO2 then it could last this long but a minimum of 6 months in any event. Your comment about a couple of pints and then a flat keg, in your opening post, indicates to me that your barrel had a leak. I usually empty a keg down to the last quarter or so before any gas needs to be added.

The general consensus, nowadays, is that you don't skim off excess foam since you can invite an infection and unwanted oxygen into your brew. Leave well alone and let the yeast do it's work.