Can You Cold Condition Too Long

[Oatlands Brewer]

I CC'd my IIpa for 10 days at 2 deg, then bottled it.

Now three weeks later its been in the spare room not the shed and not a bubble....nadda

Now i know that its cold but there isnt even any yeast settling out of suspension

should i just wait or is it screwed

 

[vic45]

Just keep waiting mate. Ive got 5 brews here and they are all the same. Outside its 10c now and zero at night. How can l tell SWMBO I need to bring 150 longnecks into the lounge room? Roll on summer.

 

[DKS]

I CC'd my IIpa for 10 days at 2 deg, then bottled it.

Now three weeks later its been in the spare room not the shed and not a bubble....nadda

Now i know that its cold but there isnt even any yeast settling out of suspension

should i just wait or is it screwed

Just be patient Oatlands It should turn out crystal clear and bright.
You could warm them a bit but only if your desperate to get stuck into them.
What type of bottles are they . If PET give them a squeeze. This will be a little guide to how they are going.
Daz

 

[Tony]

mmm..... ale yeasts do not need to be cold conditioned. I snap chill my ales to about 4 deg to drop yeast and form up any have prior to filtering to the keg but there is no advantage to aging the beer at low temp.

Lagers that are started at ale fermenting temps and then droped to 10 or 12 deg.......... yes..... CC them. If you build your lager yeast up, and pitch it to lager fermenting temp wort....... it will take up to 2 days to start (which is nerve racking stuff) but you will get a better result and the beer will need very little cold conditioning to clean itsself up, as its already fairly clean.

In lagers, if mashed and fermented corectly i think cold conditioning is a bit over rated......... but a lager will just get better and better if you have the space to store it away al low temp.

I left an oktoberfest to CC at 3 deg for 4 months and by god wasnt it good!

Its possible the cold has shocked your ale yeast and its not working so well in the bottle now. If your temp was out a deg or 2 you may have dropped the temp lower and hurt the yeast.......... leave it for a few months and it will come good and carb up. If now........ you know what to do next time!

cheers

Edit:

I have had yeast die and not carb beers before. I saved a bit of yeast from my next brew, mixed it up with some boiled cooled water and with a sterile small seringe, pumped a bit into each bottle and re capped.

It won an award at a couple comps even after that.

Bere in question was a Roggenbier and i bottle conditioned it with some WLP833 german bock yeast!

Too easy

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Thanks guys i guess im just a little jumpy, it being a IIPA it was a long-term jigger anyway so i will just put it away until the warmer months and have a another crack then.

At this rate ill have half the bottles opened buy the time the buggers ready.


Tony...I was under the inpression that all beers benifited from a bit of cold conditioning...I guess there is a difference between Cold Conditioning and just crashing..... maybe im "crashing" the brew for too long eh?

 

[manticle]

10 days is definitely not too long to cold condition.

Why not try bringing a bottle inside, keeping it really warm and seeing how it is in 5 days? If there's more carb then just wait - if there's none then reseed in the way Tony describes.

@Tony-- I find the opposite (in terms of ales). I condition mine in the fridge for around a week and find a massive difference in the time needed in the bottle to mature. It may be as simple as the flavour impact of yeast in solution but doesn't cold temps drop out some proteins etc?

 

[Tony]

@Tony-- I find the opposite (in terms of ales). I condition mine in the fridge for around a week and find a massive difference in the time needed in the bottle to mature. It may be as simple as the flavour impact of yeast in solution but doesn't cold temps drop out some proteins etc?

Cold conditioning does nothing for an ale. Its just the cold that speeds up the settling of yeast and break materials that will make the beer taste better. Thats what i chill ales to 4 deg and filter them.

When you ferment with a lager yeast, cold conditioning is the long term "finnishing" of the beer at low temp to ensure a nice clean crisp beer. Lager yeasts produce compounds that taste and smell like sulphur and a long cold rest will help the yeast clean this and other stuff up in the beer.

i guess what im saying is that you can chill both an ale and a lager to below 4 deg for extended time... and yes it will benifit both... in different ways, but with a lager its cold "conditioning" and in an ale its just chilling.

 

[manticle]

Without a filter though the extended time probably helps. I realise it's mainly dropping out the yeast but I find that has a pretty big impact on flavour which is a good enough reason to do it (or save for a filter).

good info on the distinction between lagering and cold conditioing though.

 

[Bribie G]

Ale fermentation temperatures are around 20 degrees. Traditional UK Ales are 'running beers' and were meant to be carted off to the pub cellar to be conditioned on for a week or so before serving. Pub cellar temperatures are generally around 10 - 12 degrees at which temperature the isinglass works nicely and the beer clears to brilliance. I don't have any method of keeping beer at that temperature as the kegerator and lagering fridge are way too cold, so I compromise with a few days in the lagering fridge then keg off. However as explained above that's cold crashing, not lagering as such.