Lagering Process

[Pete2501]

Colloidal stability is something that keeps popping up. There really doesn't seem to be more to it than that. There aren't any extra chemical processes that make the beer flavour change just parts of it being removed as they fall to the bottom.

I guess I was wanting it to be more of a chemical change but things dropping out works too. I was shocked by a bottled beer I tried recently. The first pour was really dry but once the yeast started getting mixed up there was a massive difference in perceived sweetness. Or it could have been glycogen.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

You need to remember that (commercially) in the vast majority of cases... lagers are going to be filtered. So yeast removal really isn't an important part of the equation. Its the other stuff.

It is a lot of chemical reactions.. but you get those in warm aging too. In fact you get more of them. Chemical reactions happen faster when its warm. The reactions that specifically happen when its cold, so in lagers... are (mostly) about things coming out of solution. Falling to the bottom is secondary because of the filtration... the fact that the compounds are no longer dissolved in the beer is the important thing.