How long will draft beer last

This causes beer to go flat quickly. Use a detergent designed specifically for beer glass cleaning. It must be low-suds, odor-free, and non-fat. Avoid drying glassware with towels, as they tend to leave traces of lint on the surface of the glass. Instead, air-dry and store on a stainless-steel wire basket or corrugated basket or surface for maximum air circulation. Store in an odor, smoke, grease, and dust-free environment. We recommend that you use beer glassware only for beer.

There are three ways to test if a glass is "beer clean": To perform the "sheeting test", dip a glass in water. If it has been properly cleaned, the glass will be evenly coated with water, which it will shed evenly in unbroken "sheets". If there is still film remaining, the water will break up into droplets.

To perform the "salt test", sprinkle salt on the interior of a wet glass. The salt will adhere evenly to a clean surface, but will not adhere to any parts still containing film. To perform the "lacing test", fill a glass with beer. In a beer clean glass, foam will adhere to the inside of the glass in parallel rings after every sip, forming a lacing pattern. In an improperly cleaned glass, any foam will adhere in a loose, random pattern, if it adheres at all.

A glass that has not been properly cleaned may have loose, large bubbles that will cause the head to disappear quickly. A: Growlers can be a great way to transport and share beer when a traditional keg is inconvenient.

When filling a growler, be sure to always use clean and sanitized growlers and filling tubes, and be aware of how laws on filling growlers may vary in your state. Before filling a growler, it is always a good idea to rinse it out with cold water to cool down the growler and prevent the beer from excessively foaming.

Additionally, the flavors are likely to change more rapidly and this flavor change will be more apparent as more oxygen is being pumped through the keg.

Ideally, you will want to finish the keg by the end of the day or to ensure freshness, purchasing smaller sized kegs will help you maintain the quality of your beer. It is also important to find a means to maintain your kegs temperature while it is dispensing to avoid premature spoilage. While convenient for tailgating and other on-the-go applications, party pumps can have additional complications such as over-pumping and foamy beer. This is why for on-the-go applications we prefer a Jockey Box, learn more about jockey boxes in our guide here.

Like a kegerator, a jockey box uses a CO2 tank to dispense the beer, which helps preserve the quality, taste, and prevents early spoilage. Like a party pump, jockey boxes are designed for on-the-go applications but the added benefit of a kegerator taste and experience. They require slightly more assembly and equipment but they offer a significantly better beer drinking experience than a manual pump. Additionally, a CO2 dispense system keeps the keg pressurized but avoids oxidation. The kegerator is the king of beer dispensing, which is the reason why many restaurants rely on kegerators to dispense their kegs.

Not only is the taste and experience of drinking beer from a kegerator better than other dispense systems, a kegerator is designed to preserve the quality of a keg. With a refrigerator storage cabinet, the keg is stored at the ideal temperature for the specific beer that is stored inside.

This temperature maintenance also prevents beer from being dispensed warm and foamy. The CO2 dispense system of a kegerator prevents oxygen from accessing the beer and maintaining the fresh brewery taste. For a properly stored keg in a kegerator, how long the beer will remain fresh will depend on the style of beer. Pasteurized beers can stay fresh from three to six months. Is that beer still good? How long before you need to wave the white flag, and just surrender that beer?

There is no one hard and fast rule for how long a keg of draft beer will stay fresh. This is especially true for craft beers because different styles of beer last longer than others. A good rule of thumb is that the shelf life for a keg of pasteurized beer is about days or months , and unpasteurized draft beer will last about days or weeks when stored at the proper temperature.

Many import and domestic beers are pasteurized. An important thing to remember is that countdown starts the day your keg is filled at the brewery, not when you tap it or buy it.

The method you choose for dispensing your beer also plays a major role in how long your keg stays fresh. You can follow the guidelines explained above for determining how long your tapped keg will last. Using a picnic pump, party pump or keg tap is a completely different situation.