Quote:
Originally Posted by RunDownHouse
Mark,
You know whether any breweries package their kegs at high volumes of CO2?
Not to my knowledge. I've never heard of it, either. Everybody I've ever had direct dealings with did it the same as you, with the exception of St. Somewhere which conditions their kegs the same way they do their bottles - a little sugar and champagne yeast added to the beer just before it goes into the keg, which is never refrigerated at the brewery.
I don't know about Chimay specifically, but I've seen videos/pictures of their facility and it sure seems pretty modern to me, so I doubt they do anything different than the fellas down the road at Stella Artois.
A keg could be a perfect vessel for aging since it's air-tight and opaque, but the
impression I've always gotten is that high-end Belgian beer (not Hoegaarden, Leffe, etc) in kegs is an after-thought or a concession. At least all the serious beer snobs who influenced me along the way gave me that idea.
I do know some people from the
Brouwerij Sterkens personally, and they didn't like the idea of putting their beer into kegs because of long-held tradition. I also know they're businessmen and a large part of their family holdings has sprawled into commercial food manufacture in Europe. With those facts in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if they change their tune, and equipment, if the correct opportunity arose.