My roommate and I built a bar with a CO2 draft beer system. The last time we did this we used a gutted out mini fridge to cool a 1/4 keg. This time I'm wondering if it'd be easier to use copper or stainless steel coils. I believe the system would be more compact and would save energy, but now we're wondering if keeping the keg at room temperature would spoil the beer faster. Any suggestions? For a 1/4 keg, we'd like to maintain a shelf life of at least a few weeks.
Refrigeration's going to be pretty important for the shelf life of true, unpasteurized draught beer, I'd say. This is where I go for info on maintaining draught beer- >
Pasteurization means heating to a temperature above 140F (60C) and holding the temperature there for the proper length of time. This kills any bacteria that may have developed during the time between the original boil and packaging, e.g., cans, bottles, etc. The amount of bacteria is miniscule. The problem is shelf life (how long a beer sits in its package before it is consumed).
Since kegged beer has a very short shelf life, the opportunity for bacteria growth should not be an issue, But bacteria growth is a very real possibility with bottled and canned beer so it gets pasteurized.
"Unpasteurized beer" is pretty much the definition of draught beer in the US (otherwise, it's nothing other than a really big can of beer), so most all US brewers keg their beers without pasteurizing and then keep them refrigerated at all times throughout the distribution chain. Many imports- due to their long transit time- are "flash-pasteurized" to prolong their shelf-life (as, reputedly, are some US craft beers). I'm sure most will say "Keep Refrigerated" on the collar "label" of the keg. So, if you're buying US "macro" beer (Bud, Miller, Coors) you'll want it refrigerated at all times.
Kind of a "chicken-egg" statement, isn't it since the reason draught beer HAS a short shelf life is *because* it's not pasteurized, and it's kept refrigerated to keep the whatever yeast that's left after filtering (and whatever else might have made it in there) dormant.
And, of course, with today's craft beer and many "non-macro" imports, non-pasteurized, bottle conditioned beers are very easy to come by these days, so the old US "rule of thumb" of "cans/bottles=pasteurized, keg=unpasteurized" doesn't work anymore. (And that's not even considering the "micro-filtered" beers like Coors and the "real draft in bottle/canned" beers).
Are you referring to a jockey box or simply running coils through a refrigerator? I don't think the latter would work if the coils are exposed to cold ai. Direct contact with ice is needed.
It's like 12 of one and two six-packs of the other. But if they wanted a longer shelf life, they'd have pasteurized it.
True enough, but 99%+ of kegged beer is unpasteurized because a short shelf life is expected and that was part of the OP's questions.
What's the shelf life of "micro-filtered" beers like Coors and the "real draft in bottle/canned" beers? What does "micro-filtered" actually mean? What the difference between "real draft" and draft?
See, I guess I just prefer to see the other way 'round. Draught beer is unpasteurized BECAUSE that's what draught beer *is* (in the US) and most people (and brewers) prefer "live" fresh beer for most styles (as long as the beer and draught system is properly maintained). And, because it's not pasteurized it has a shorter shelf life than bottled beers and flash pasteurized kegs and, more critically, for that "life" (usually
1-2 months) it needs to be kept cold the entire time.
Last I checked Coors worked on a two month shelf life (tho' they dropped the "mandatory refrigeration" somewhere along the way when they went national), Miller's was 17 weeks (tho' their "cold filtered" method, developed by the Japanese, is a bit different than Coors'- just don't ask me to remember how).
What does "micro-filtered" actually
Really, really small filters. IIRC, the Germans perfected the technique during WWII, and the old Heffenreffer brewery in Boston worked on it after the War. Coors was the first major brewer to make full use of it - simultaneously to their work with the aluminum can (which, was needed for the "sterile fill" canning line environment necessary with their system) in the late 1950's.
In the case of the chicken and the egg, beer came first and pasteurization is product stability add-on. But everyone is entitled to their preferred parallax.
Four months sounds right to me.
Micron filtering is the method of choice for both beer and wine and filtering is more effective when product is cold. But, what does Coors do different, if anything, from other brewers? Or is just another advertising ploy?
Ah, a jovially sarcastic response to a jovially sarcastic question. ;)
IMRHO, "real draft", like "genuine draft", is just another advertising ploy.
I think it's just a much finer, denser filter (50 feet long by some accounts) and also necessitated the use of aluminum (instead of steel) cans and sterile "clean room" environments for the canning lines, which sounds to me like it probably cost them more than a company would usually spend on an "advertising ploy". OTOH, there was some cost savings involved by skipping the heating and re-cooling of the packaged beer. Now, I've always been curious about what exactly happened that they dropped the "continuously refrigerated" requirement when they went national in the 1980's (or was it just distributor/retailer resistance).
Well, yeah, but like many other ploys, it had a basis in fact (filtered not pasteurized)- now whether the average drinker of industrial light lagers could tell the difference or if it even made a noticeable difference is the question.
Pretty sure that "Cold Filtered" is a registered trademark, but don't know if it's Miller's or the manufacturer of their ceramic filters/system (which Sapporo had a hand in developing). Other brewers in Australia and Canada use the term there, so possibly it's not Miller's. The term gets a lot of flack - "ALL filtering is done cold"- but it seems they went with the seeming redundancy to juxtapose it with the equally redundant "heat pasteurization". Why beer drinkers would take "HOT" over "COLD"?
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