Bottle Conditioning Question

I've had some pales carbonate in a weeks time. But I usually start refrigerating and enjoying at the two week mark. I always keep afew un refridgerated for further conditioning. Just to get an idea of what more time in the bottle will do. A lot of them seem to be better around the 3-4 week time frame. I'm no expert brewer either. But I've made a few batches.

 

Long answer it depends on a bunch of factors. Yeast, pitching rate, yeast health, et al. So it's hard to put a number on.
Short answer is put a bottle in the fridge at 2.5 weeks. Enjoy it the next day and test the carb.

If it's enough, refrigerate all of them if you have the means. If not refrigerate a few and swap out full for empty.

Lagniappe- a vigorous fermentation at the proper temp with a healthy pitch fixes/makes up for quite a few procedural short comings. Too much trub in the fermenter is not a big deal in most circumstances.

 

I'd take another gravity reading to verify that you are still at 1.012. If so, go ahead and bottle with the appropriate amount of sugar for the volume of liquid that you have left after your spill. Let the bottles sit at the temp at which they fermented, or slightly higher is okay too, but 70-72 is ideal. Put one in the fridge after 10 days to test, and if you get a good whoosh when you pry the cap, and if you have a nice head on the beer, you can begin drinking them. Chill them all or just store them in a cool location. Some extra time in the bottle will usually benefit a beer, so you should notice an improvement as they age.

 

I always try to start drinking my beer too early and regret it. Bottle conditioning is about more than just carbing, I've found. I struggle with this every batch.

 

"Bottle conditioning is about more than just carbing..." Yea Verily!!

Cheers!

 

Allow me to piggy-back onto this question: does bottle condition occur at fridge temperatures? I just bottled a Scotch ale, and I'm wondering if I should put it in the fridge once carbonation has completed or if I should leave it in the cellar (low 60s ambient temp right now).

 

If by bottle conditioning you mean oxidation and most other processes that yeast are not involved in (or not involved much), then yes, but slower than at higher temps. If you mean tannins and proteins clumping together and dropping out of suspension, then the cold temps help that.

For most beers, I refrigerate.

 

I always leave mine in the cellar/basement, and will just put 1-2 bottles in the fridge if I am planning on drinking them that night. I DID however have one batch where the bottles were starting to over carb, so I put all of them in the fridge, which pretty much kept them from carbonating any more than they already have.

I would keep your scotch ales at cellar temps until they mature a bit more before you refrigerate.

 

By "bottle conditioning", I mean the magical cleaning-up of flavors that is supposed to happen over time. Like in Brewing Classic Styles, where Jamil says that cellaring or cold-conditioning a beer for several months will improve it. I thought this was the yeast's doing, in which case I would imagine that refrigerating the beer would put a stop to it.

 

The yeast participates in some things early on (acetaldehyde cleanup for example). But eventually it pretty much goes dormant, regardless of temperature.

Things to think about... what is it you want to change and what do you want to try to preserve? There are sometimes tradeoffs.

 

If you are seeking for your beers to ‘evolve’ then storing them at room/cellar temperatures is appropriate; over time the beer will change due to continued yeast related activities but also due to other chemical reactions as well (e.g., oxidation processes).

If the beer is exactly where you want it flavor wise then it would be appropriate to store them at refrigerator temperatures to try and maintain that flavor profile. It is important to recognize that chemical processes (e.g., oxidation processes) still occur at colder temperatures but at a slower rate.

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the info. So presumably, when Jamil talks about cold conditioning the beer for a while, he means at cellar temps (so that changes in flavor occur) rather than fridge temps (to keep things the same).

 

Can you please provide a page number where Jamil discusses this matter?

Cheers!

 

I don't have my copy on-hand, but in his recipe for the wee heavy that I brewed (McZainasheff's Wee, around page 132), I'm pretty sure he has a half-sentence about this in the part about fermentation at the end of the recipe.

EDIT: This is in Brewing Classic Styles, in case you didn't see that upthread. He never really gets into the science behind it, he just says that cold conditioning will help.

 

I'd be willing to bet that when Jamil says "cold conditioning" he's talking about lagering, i.e. fridge temps.

 

On page 126 (Scottish Heavy recipe) Jamil states: Allowing the beer to cold condition around 40°F (4°C) for several months will improve the beer.”

At a cold temperature like 40°F this sounds more like lagering than cellaring to me.

One of the things that happen during lagering is that proteins combine with polyphenols (tannins) and precipitate out of solution. When brewing a lager beer, the lagering process aids in creating a beer that has clean and crisp qualities. There are some hybrid beer styles which call for fermentation with an ale yeast strain followed by a lagering process; two examples are Kolsch and Altbier.

It appears that for the Scotch Heavy beer style Jamil thinks that cold conditioning (lagering) provides a benefit.

Cheers!

 

Ah, I see. Thanks! It must be a different recipe where he recommends cold conditioning without specifying the temperature (probably one of the Belgians or the bière de garde).