conditioning beer

[jonboymentalhealth]

ive noticed some people condition there beer for several months is this done in the bottle, demi john or keg?? whats the advantages in the afore mentioned?? :whistle:

 

[Wez]

I condition for as long as it takes the beer to taste 'right' or at it's peak. That has been as little as 9 days from grain to glass.

There is some talk of 1 week per 1.010 gravity points, i.e. give a 1.040 beer 4 weeks and give a 1.050 beer 5 weeks. Personally I'm not sure this a good guide it doesn't take into account hop 'rawness'.

Beer will need some time under pressure to get some life, so I always condition in a cornie keg.

 

[Brewmarc]

What i do is transfer to a secondary fermenter when the primary fermentation is complete & leave this or about a month under airlock ( though I have left longer) this allows the yeast to "mop up" the sugars left, & the beer to fall bright, then bottle & allow to carbonate (more than enough yeast cells left for this) about 10 days befor drinking the first bottle :drink: .

If you keg, then you can transfer to that after primary & allow to condition for as long as it takes for the beer to taste right as Wez says, or as long as your patiance lasts. A strong complex ale ie Belgian tripple style ale, will benifit from a long coditioning period.

 

[Sparkz]

People say about a certain timeframe but I for one dont believe in all that...

ideally the longer you leav it the better it will taste but the best thing is tasting your beer whenever you can so you know when its ready.

My last brew was geordie scottish bitter.

Less than 24 hours after it was in the barrel I tasted it...

A day later I tasted it again

then a few days later again

It really made me notice the difference between drinkable beer and undrinkable beer (day 1 = really malty and hard to drink, day 7 = started to bring out the full flavours)

My previous geordie bitter had a month or so to condition... however after just 1 week in the barrel this time it tastes exactly like it did previously

 

I always believed (I am quite prepared to be wrong yet again) that conditioning beer was to get CO2 dissolved into it so that it produced a “bead” when poured.
Whereas maturing, is all about time taken, to produce the subtle mellow flavours that make a good pint into a great pint.

 

[Cussword]

I always believed (I am quite prepared to be wrong yet again) that conditioning beer was to get CO2 dissolved into it so that it produced a “bead” when poured.
Whereas maturing, is all about time taken, to produce the subtle mellow flavours that make a good pint into a great pint.

I have to agree, the maturing is about getting the best taste. (To my knowledge :pray:)

 

[Sparkz]

I always believed (I am quite prepared to be wrong yet again) that conditioning beer was to get CO2 dissolved into it so that it produced a “bead” when poured.
Whereas maturing, is all about time taken, to produce the subtle mellow flavours that make a good pint into a great pint.

I have to agree, the maturing is about getting the best taste. (To my knowledge :pray:)

pretty much thats conditioning. The hard part is done once it hits the bottle/barrel. Its beer but once transfered the c02 is not released so it gives the pint head and stops it being flat, but also brings out more flavours.


Maturing can be about getting the best taste however beer kits are never the best taste. Average pint (after all ingredients/stereliser) costs just 40p which is better quality than a lot of supermarket rubbish but isnt as good as a lot of typical traditional ales.

As mentioned in my previous post its often the case of there being no such time limit. Since beer kits are never going to be 100% like the best ales around its all about knowing when to know they taste near their peak. With a lot of beer kits some peope do leave them for months before drinking but sadly a lot of the time the exact same taste could be achieved after just 1 week of conditioning (especially with the single can kits which are low budget and wont ever taste as good as 2 can kits). This is shown with the "geordie scottish bitter" kit I did. A week in the barrel tasted exactly the same as it did when it had a month in the barrel with a previous batch (so in effect the extra 3 weeks+ did nothing for it)