Conditioning blonde Ale

[Darren Jeory]

Hi all

My brother asked me to brew a beer especially for a "big weekend" we are having at his house.

I made a blonde (my own recipe) with the following:

4kg maris otter
500g vienna
250g of oats
CML general ale yeast

Went in the fermenter last night and is now going great guns bubbling like crazy. However, this beer has to be ready for 26th june leaving me approx 3 weeks from bottling to drinking...is this enough and do you have any tips on how to maximise conditioning in this time frame?

Thanks as always

 

[Darren Jeory]

Forgot to mention used fuggles hops and a little hallertau I had left over

 

[Random Badger]

If the beer is going into bottles then you can't force carbonate it. If you put some/all of it into plastic PET bottles you will be able to check when they become firm. Maybe keep the bottles somewhere warm until they seem carbonated and then transfer them to a fridge for the remaining time?

 

[An Ankoù]

I'd doubt it will be ready in 3 weeks. It may well be carbonated, but bottle conditioning tends to take a little longer. Have you got a pressure barrel you can use? It all comes together much more quickly in bulk.

 

[Darren Jeory]

Nah dont have one

 

[Darren Jeory]

Im putting in 5l mini kegs if that helps

 

[An Ankoù]

Im putting in 5l mini kegs if that helps

Good luck.

 

[Galena]

It's certainly going to be close, but when bottling I usually find mine carbonate in about 5 days minimum at least as far as the PET bottle hardening up though I always give them 2 weeks. Condition at the higher end of room temperature and you might just get there in that, then chill and hope. Not sure if the beer will be at it's best by then though.

 

[Darren Jeory]

Condition warm? I was gonna let them carbonate then try chilling for 2 weeks...its that a no no?

 

[Galena]

Condition warm? I was gonna let them carbonate then try chilling for 2 weeks...its that a no no?

I was assuming you are naturally carbonating, by adding sugar on bottling? In which case they need to be in a warm place for up to 2 weeks before chilling (as I said you may get away with 5 days). They carbonate by secondary fermentation of the yeast, yeast should be at fermentation temperature or thereabouts.
If you are force carbing with CO2 then that is a different story

 

[Darren Jeory]

I was assuming you are naturally carbonating, by adding sugar on bottling? In which case they need to be in a warm place for up to 2 weeks before chilling (as I said you may get away with 5 days). They carbonate by secondary fermentation of the yeast, yeast should be at fermentation temperature or thereabouts.
If you are force carbing with CO2 then that is a different story

Oh yeah I knew that but was talking about the conditioning afterwards crossed wires on my part there.

How long should it take for ale to condition? I was always under the impression that ale is ready to drink a lot faster than lagers which was half of the appeal of brewing them

 

[Galena]

Oh yeah I knew that but was talking about the conditioning afterwards crossed wires on my part there.

How long should it take for ale to condition? I was always under the impression that ale is ready to drink a lot faster than lagers which was half of the appeal of brewing them

There is often confusion over terminology of 'conditioning', I always class it as seperate from carbonating, but some don't.
I always leave mine in a cool place to condition (after carbonation) for at least 2 weeks before drinking, preferably a month even with ales. Some definitely keep improving but if you need to drink it younger then try it after a few days and see.
If kegged then I drink after 2 weeks but they do seem to improve with more time, even the blonde ales.

 

[Hanglow]

I'd expect that beer to be fine in that timeframe as it's pale and an ale, keep warm (20c) for a week to carbonate then chill as cold as possible to drop as much yeast as possible.. I don't know the yeast though, but assuming it is flocculant then you should be easily good to go. Even if it's not particularly flocculant, two weeks at close to freezing as you can manage will drop most yeasts

 

[moto748]

I'd expect that beer to be fine in that timeframe as it's pale and an ale, keep warm (20c) for a week to carbonate then chill as cold as possible to drop as much yeast as possible.. I don't know the yeast though, but assuming it is flocculant then you should be easily good to go. Even if it's not particularly flocculant, two weeks at close to freezing as you can manage will drop most yeasts

That's an interesting thought for me. All my beer is stored on my kitchen floor, for better or worse (no alternative storage available). When I want to drink a beer, I just bung it on the fridge for a few hours. Dark beers, that's fine, they clear perfectly. But it often seems harder to get lighter beers crystal-clear. I have a pretty pale batch bottled at the moment. Looking at a clear PET bottle, it's pretty clear, but not crystal clear, and the sediment is a bit flyaway, if you know what I mean. It hadn't occurred to me that I might improve the situation by leaving it in the fridge for days, or even weeks, rather than hours. So I bunged a couple of bottles in right now, thanks!

 

[moto748]

So following on from that post... I put a couple of PET swing-top bottles in the fridge, and left them there.

To be clear, my fridge is a 'normal' fridge, not a 'brew fridge'. It is full of milk and dairy and food. Beer has to be squeezed in where there's space. So I don't normally leave beer in the fridge for an extended period. However, the best part of a week later, I can report that...

The bottles in the fridge are cloudier than when they went in, and cloudier than ones left on the kitchen floor. So I don't know what to say about that, really.

 

[Roamin]

That's an interesting thought for me. All my beer is stored on my kitchen floor, for better or worse (no alternative storage available). When I want to drink a beer, I just bung it on the fridge for a few hours. Dark beers, that's fine, they clear perfectly. But it often seems harder to get lighter beers crystal-clear. I have a pretty pale batch bottled at the moment. Looking at a clear PET bottle, it's pretty clear, but not crystal clear, and the sediment is a bit flyaway, if you know what I mean. It hadn't occurred to me that I might improve the situation by leaving it in the fridge for days, or even weeks, rather than hours. So I bunged a couple of bottles in right now, thanks!

I store them all on my workroom floor (no sunlight) but they always seem to clear out just fine ... usually about 3 weeks and crystal clear... English IPA's, America IPA's, Belgian Doubles and Belgian Tripples.
I just put a few a time in the fridge just to make sure I've got cold beer.

The photo's an English IPA bottled 3 months ago; drinking it here after 3 weeks.
It sure tastes better than anything you can buy.
Bottled 80 bottles just a couple of hours ago.
And I'm listening to my latest IPA batch bubbling away in the corner of living room as I type.
Only started it off an hour ago .. seems somewhat early to be so feisty
Now the Covid restrictions are lifting here in The Netherlands, I'm gonna have to invite friends and family around to help me reduce stock.. haha.

 

[AXW123]

If it ihas gone cloudy in the fridge it’s probably a protein haze. These will often drop out after a further week or two in the fridge.

 

[Darren Jeory]

Blonde has just finished carbing so I thought I would try it...I'm gobsmacked at how good it is. My wife just said it tasted like a pint from a pub...and she is the first to say she doesn't like something