Cold Conditioning Ales

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hamstringsally

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ATM i ferment my ales at between 16 to 17 deg with us05. then after two weeks i bottle and leave sit in about 10 to 14 deg for 4 weeks for carbonation in bottle. would it improve if i cold conditioned at about two degrees for a week?

what is your process for ales?

cheers
 
ATM i ferment my ales at between 16 to 17 deg with us05. then after two weeks i bottle and leave sit in about 10 to 14 deg for 4 weeks for carbonation in bottle. would it improve if i cold conditioned at about two degrees for a week?

what is your process for ales?

cheers

I do 9 days on the US05r then cold condition for about a week, sometimes a little less, to drop the yeast out. I also gelatine whilst CC'ing. Then keg / bottle. I get good clean beer doing this.
 
it will improve, clarity and flavor. if you can be bothered waiting, my usual ale process, and probably the same as most here is 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks cold condition, keg, drink. of course sometimes this process needs to be changed depending on certain factors
 
what is the nuts and bolts behind the cold conditioning with improving flavor with ales? i guess thats where im a little grey on it.

as far as i know if i prime and bottle the yeast helps with carbonation. so if cold condition before bottling does that put the yeast to sleep for that period then wake but up for carbonation?


cheers
 
perhaps this will help

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter8-3.html

"Towards the end of secondary fermentation, the suspended yeast flocculates (settles out) and the beer clears. High molecular weight proteins also settle out during this stage. Tannin/phenol compounds will bind with the proteins and also settle out, greatly smoothing the taste of the beer. This process can be helped by chilling the beer, very similar to the lagering process. In the case of ales, this process is referred to as Cold Conditioning, and is a popular practice at most brewpubs and microbreweries. Cold conditioning for a week clears the beer with or without the use of finings."

edit to add: why not just do it in the bottle? for me, two reasons, there will be much more High molecular weight proteins in the full volume of beer there by, in my way of thinking anyway, be able to clear out much more Tannin/phenol compounds. also. more crud in the fermenter means less crud in your bottles
 
I bought a kegmate for fermenting and lagering, I run it on a fridgemate during primary fermentation, then take the fridgmate out of the "loop" and run the kegmate in native mode for a week. The new model will get down to -1 degrees.

I'm basically following the procedure that I saw at Bacchus Brewing although they can't get down too cold for Workplace health and safety reasons (slippery ice floors etc).
 
"Cold conditioning for a week clears the beer with or without the use of finings."

cc-ing in the fermenter as well as after carbing up, cc-ing in the bottle for a few days makes my ales pretty clear, though this quote above from Howtobrew makes me wonder why I'm stuffing around with gelatine



you really notice the difference in clarity when you dont have any cold so you quick chill a bottle from the shed in the freezer for half an hour, its a lot less clear than one thats been in the fridge for a couple of days
 
thanks heaps for the feedback

got a batch at the moment in primary so keen to try something new and just basically improve every brew
 
so if i cold condition in fermenters after primary at say 2 deg for a week then prime bottles and rack for 4 weeks at 17 deg for carbonation this should be fine and better my methods and final result?
 
Bulk priming would be even better than bottle priming as it is a lot more consistent. It isn't any more difficult, you just need an extra vessel (which could even be a bucket with a tap).
 
Bulk priming would be even better than bottle priming as it is a lot more consistent. It isn't any more difficult, you just need an extra vessel (which could even be a bucket with a tap).



maybe like a air tight conical type fermenter then bottle and cap like a brewery? (bright tank)
 
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