Beer conditioning question

[Darren Waszkinel]

Hey All

I am interested in making Belgian beer and I understand that it needs to be conditioned after fermentation. My question is, does that conditioning need to take place in bottles?
i am about to purchase my setup and am thinking of going for kegging over bottling but I want to mainly focus on Belgian beer and would like to know if it’s possible to go to the Fermzilla for fermentation and then move to a keg for conditioning.
Any advice appreciated as always

 

[MHB]

Nah - you can condition in tanks, kegs, casks, bottles... it really wont matter.
Just one point to remember is that some Belgians take a fair while to peak and as some of then are pretty strong might even take a while to drink. Remember that you are going to have your kegs tied up for a lot longer than may be the case with other beers.
Most good recipes will give some idea of the time required to condition/mature. Factor that in to your planning and you will be fine. Not a bad idea to bottle some and to stash them for a long time. I had a tasting of Chime Grande Reserve that spanned a decade, the 7-9 year old beer was the best, by 10 years it was loosing its edge but some of the middle aged stuff was profoundly good maybe even worth waiting for.
Gotta love Belgian beers, Mark

 

[Mr B]

I have a Belgian dubbel that is a staple, it’s good as soon as kegged. Not to say that conditioning is not a good thing, but it’s also perhaps not a necessity.

This one is about 6.5%, I think in general the higher the abv the more benefit to conditioning. Probably a gross generalisation?

 

[MHB]

Perhaps it is, but its a dam good rule of thumb!
Ad blacker and you get the old truism "the bigger and blacker the more it benefits from waiting"
Mark