Bottle Conditioning Lagers

[Ash in Perth]

Gday guys. at what temp do people botle condition their lagers?

my pilsner has been in CC for a month and tastes great, i dont want it developing fruity flavours by conditioning too warm. is 12 Degrees ok or should it be warmer?

Cheers, Ash

 

[Steve]

Gday guys. at what temp do people botle condition their lagers?

my pilsner has been in CC for a month and tastes great, i dont want it developing fruity flavours by conditioning too warm. is 12 Degrees ok or should it be warmer?

Cheers, Ash

Ash
I havent had any problems conditioning mine at room temp in the laundry which is a lot warmer than 12.
Cheers
Steve

 

[DrewCarey82]

My beers get stored in my garage which probably gets as high as 18-24 degrees.

Never tasted any off flavours.

Ideally I'd love to cold condition but no where to do so!

 

[sluggerdog]

as you have already done the 4 weeks I'd say it would be fine. I have left kegs (I know, not bottles) in temps upto 30 + degrees and they have been fine. As long as you condition it in a cube first I can see no problem infact some lagers I think were better after being out ofthe fridge for a while.

 

[Ash in Perth]

the thing im worried about is the yeast fermenting a bit fruity at higher temps or not at all at lower temps

what do you mean by conditioning in a cube? I ferment in a fermenter and then rack to another one jsut big enoguh for the baatch for CC then bottle

 

[sluggerdog]

Well you mentioned that you haved already done 4 weeks of CC which I am guessing is in a cube yes?

So now I would say you've done enough and most of the yeast would have already dropped out.

 

[Kai]

The little bit of fermentation that takes place in the bottle isn't going to produce much in the way of esters. I routinely raise the temperature of my fermenters for the last few gravity points with no dramas.

 

[Ash in Perth]

i condition in a fermenter not a cube. sorry i didnt get ya at first.

if all yeast drops out it means there is not much left to bottle condition so it would probably need to be a bit warmer to make sure whats left can.

 

[sluggerdog]

so yeah pretty much what kai has said, there won't be enough yeast left to cause you any flavour problems.

 

[Ash in Perth]

cheers, ill let it condition at about 18 then

 

[mike_hillyer]

Ash secondary is minimal v primary. Big worry is the yeast cannibilising itself and leaving a vegemite taste which is offset by storing the beer at lowest temp the yeast just works out.

 

[Kai]

so yeah pretty much what kai has said, there won't be enough yeast left to cause you any flavour problems.

Yeah, though I also meant that there aren't enough fermentables left to cause any problems either.