How Do You Condition Your Beer?

[dabre4]

I have a question about conditioning ales. My obvious thought is that they should be conditioned at room temperature. Is there any advantage to conditioning ales at cooler temperatures?

What conditioning techniques do you use? I always do secondary fermentation for 1-2weeks, but am never quite sure what to do next. Is it best to chill, carb and drink straight away. Or purge out air, chill and store, then carbonate. Or purge out air and store at room temp?

 

[fcmcg]

I did an ESB , based on Ross from Craft Brewer's recipe and i must say that it was 15 days from fermenter to keg...amd it tasted better not conditioned...IMO...
Otherwise i usually condition in the keg for at least a week before tapping the keg.
When i do secondary ( and opinions is still divided as to its merits ) , i will then keg after a week .
Some blokes will do their secondary then drop to 1-2 degrees to allow the yeast to drop out of suspension...then keg...then condition..
Some beeers are better greener than others too....
Ask 3 brewers the same question...get 50 different answers !
MY 2c
Cheers
Ferg

 

[dabre4]

Cheers Ferg. I think my best approach will be to let it condition in the keg for a week or so at ambiant, then chill.

 

[Pete2501]

Herbal Essence normally but since they took my favourite one of their line of products.

I just leave my bottles on the laundry cupboard floor. I don't condition beer going in the keg. Once it's kegged it's carbed and then ready to drink in my books. I do cold condition my beers to drop out most of the yeast though. That lasts about a week at max.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Herbal Essence normally but since they took my favourite one of their line of products.

I just leave my bottles on the laundry cupboard floor. I don't condition beer going in the keg. Once it's kegged it's carbed and then ready to drink in my books. I do cold condition my beers to drop out most of the yeast though. That lasts about a week at max.

Does your beer sit in secondary at all?

 

[Screwtop]

Depends upon conditioning temp and yeast strain...................

Screwy

 

[manticle]

Regularly rack to secondary when 3/4 finished, let sit after finishiing for 5-7 days, then cold condition 5-7 days. /Fortunately/unfortunately this means the beer tastes less green with less time in the bottle and I tend to drink it too quickly, too early.

However I try and set a few bottles of 'ageable' type beers aside to see how they change. I also have some sour beers ageing in glass demijohns with no tap. mOstly the beers improve with age but the recent summer destroyed a couple of my much better beers (only the 1 or 2 I managed to hang onto thinking 'oh these will be tops).

I have plans to buy some more demijohns for my darker/high alc/cellerable beers so that I can age in volume before bottling.

It does vary though with what's being brewed - while my regular process is primary, secondary, let sit, cold condition then bottle, there are some beers that don't need so much attention and some that need more. I need to remove the temptations or brew more or drink less (not sure if the latter two are possible)

 

[Pete2501]

Does your beer sit in secondary at all?

Nope. There's no reason. A guy did a poll on who uses a secondary about 5 months ago and about 10% used a secondary.


The bottle is a secondary and the keg is a secondary.

 

[jakub76]

I don't bother with a secondary. I leave an Ale 7-9 days in primary before bottling and a lager 14 - 21 days. I bulk prime and leave in bottles at room temperature (20-25C) for as long as I feel that beer needs any yeast activity, usually 2 weeks. If the yeast is expected to clean up Diacetyl or other ugly by-products then I might leave it for 3-4 weeks.
Then it's into the fridge for a cold crash to -1C, it's amazing how a perfectly clear beer can haze up in a day when crash chilled. This drops out the yeast and floculates the proteins for a clearer beer, as well as the acetaldehyde and polyphenols (tannin) for a cleaner tasting beer. Plus a beer will keep longer at colder temperatures, obviously before it stales or spoils and I've noticed a big difference in the characteristics of hop flavour between lagered ales and those conditioned at room temperature.
3 weeks is about all you need at around 0C to have everything flock and drop out. Your beer will look and taste a lot cleaner. Why not try it with your next batch, keep a control 6-pack at room temperature for the same time and taste the difference after 3 weeks of lagering.

 

[dabre4]

Thanks for all the replys on this post. As always everyone has a slightly different method! I wan't to bring this topic up again because I have another related question. When it comes to conditioning a brew (one the benefits from it!) is it best to condition the beer carbonated or none carbonated, or does it not make any difference? I made an epic pale ale clone a few weeks ago, and i know it will benefited with some aging, but it's just sitting down stairs in the keg, but not carbed, and this question came to mind. Cheers.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Nope. There's no reason. A guy did a poll on who uses a secondary about 5 months ago and about 10% used a secondary.


The bottle is a secondary and the keg is a secondary.

So how long is it from keg to serving for you?