Can this be done?

[brewkinger]

A friend (who is not yet a member of the forum) and I brewed an AG batch of brown ale on 1/24. It was his first AG and I helped him through the process.
Fast forward to yesterday when I asked him how it tasted.
It is still in primary.
He has the ability to keg, but has no co2 at the moment.
Can it be transferred to keg and stored until next week with no oxidation concerns?
Should he rack it off the yeast?
Is it too late for this after 3 months?

 

[Yooper]

A friend (who is not yet a member of the forum) and I brewed an AG batch of brown ale on 1/24. It was his first AG and I helped him through the process.
Fast forward to yesterday when I asked him how it tasted.
It is still in primary.
He has the ability to keg, but has no co2 at the moment.
Can it be transferred to keg and stored until next week with no oxidation concerns?
Should he rack it off the yeast?
Is it too late for this after 3 months?

He can rack into the keg, no problem. Ideally, he'd purge with co2 and make sure it seals, but it's not that big of a deal. Really, a keg is just a big bottle and I don't purge my bottles before I bottle my beer.

He can rack into the keg. If he wants to, he could even use some priming sugar (about 2.5 ounces by weight for a 5 gallon batch in a keg) like with bottling and set it at room temperature to carb up. I'd suggest some keg lube around the lid seal, to help ensure it seals. I have a couple of kegs that just don't want to seal without pressure, but most seal just fine.

 

[RM-MN]

A friend (who is not yet a member of the forum) and I brewed an AG batch of brown ale on 1/24. It was his first AG and I helped him through the process.
Fast forward to yesterday when I asked him how it tasted.
It is still in primary.
He has the ability to keg, but has no co2 at the moment.
Can it be transferred to keg and stored until next week with no oxidation concerns?
Should he rack it off the yeast?
Is it too late for this after 3 months?

He could let it set for another 3 months without any problems. He probably could let it set for another 6 months even but it's pretty hard to wait that long for beer.

 

[brewkinger]

Thank you both for the input.
It is always a pleasure to have questions answered in a timely fashion and when the first couple of responses are from names that you know and trust, it means that much more.

My suspicion was that he could leave it on the yeast cake for longer with no adverse effects.
So, when would autolysis become a factor in this? If at all??

 

[RM-MN]

Well, I'd trust the info from Yooper but I don't know about that RM-MN.

I've done a little research on autolysis and it appears that homebrewers can't create the conditions necessary for it to occur. You would need a large mass of yeast in a compact area so that the activity of the yeast create heat that they can't get rid of. Basically they cook themselves to death.

 

[brewkinger]

So which of the following is his best option;
1) leave it in ferment until he has co2 for keg
2) put in keg and then force carb when ever he gets the CO2

 

[RM-MN]

So which of the following is his best option;
1) leave it in ferment until he has co2 for keg
2) put in keg and then force carb when ever he gets the CO2

3) put it in the key with priming sugar and let it naturally carb, then when he gets the CO2, pressure it for serving.

It's hard to say what is best. They all work.

 

[Balue]

4) Keg and brew a new batch for the now empty fermenter

 

[brewkinger]

Thanks again.

I will pass this on to him. I may have I bring the priming sugar to him as he have me 3# for helping him with the batch.
I told him that he should keep some for himself but he said "now that I keg, I have no need for it!"
So now I get to heckle him slightly, I might even sell him 2.5oz as his punishment.