Conditioning question

[Philjobooboo]

Hi all just a quick 1. Once bottled store somewhere warm for 2 days then somewhere cool! So is cool garden shed/garage or somewhere in the house IE cool kitchen cupboard?

 

[NickW]

2 weeks in the warm. Not 2 days, it is highly likely 2 days instead enough. 2 weeks in the warm gives the yeasties chance to carbonate the beer.

Then cool to condition (although there are some schools of thought that this isn't exactly necessary ). Cool as you can I guess. Just don't let it freeze :thumb:

 

[bamboy74]

In warm for 2 weeks then move to somewhere cooler to complete conditioning. Garage or shed should be fine although I moved mine to the loft last night as it is really getting cold up here.

 

[Philjobooboo]

Great thanks guys

 

[Papa G]

2 weeks in the warm and 2 in the cool should be fine. Saying that just had a bottle of stout, 2 weeks in warm and a day in the fridge, tasted good but on the way to being better. Just got to leave them for an other few weeks.

 

[Philjobooboo]

I'm doing the wilko Mexican lager, just read the instructions, I take it they are being a bit optermistic for 2 days in the warm then?

 

[StevieDS]

Kit instructions are notoriously optimistic, give it at least 2weeks :thumb:

 

[perryni]

Sorry slightly hijacking this thread.

I have been cold conditioning my ale at around 2 degrees (to drop the **** out of it), is this a better/worse way to condition, or does it make no difference?

 

[PD]

as long as its had 2 weeks warm for the yeasts to eat the priming sugars and make gas...

 

[Bowl sprayer]

I'm a novice so someone who knows what they are talking about might be able to help but I thought priming, secondary fermentation and conditioning were different things.

For example, priming to get secondary fermentation is used to carbonate bottled beer and create a good delivery pressure for kegged beer. Conditioning is the process of flavours maturing over time. I cold condition my bottled beers to help the co2 produced in the secondary fermentation dissolve into the beer to give me fizz.

If I am right (and I accept I'm often not) you need to prime and make sure secondary fermentation is complete before cold conditioning bottled beer. That usually takes about 2 weeks in the warm. Then you need to leave it in a cold place, first to make it fizzy and second to allow the beer to mature/condition so that it tastes ok.

 

[foxy]

I would say it wouldn't make any difference, but why don't you try keeping some in a shed,or other cool place to bottle condition and see if you notice any difference, always better to go off your own experience. As with a lot of topics in brewing there are different opinions which could be debated till the cows come home.
As for Bowl sprayer yes what you are doing is right, once your beer has carbonated leave it in a cold-cool place for as long as you can, you will often hear stories of beer having an off taste and after a good length of time the beer will come good, I had this happen to me with a stout it fermented a bit to high a temperature and didn't taste so good, found the bottles at the back of the shed over a year later and they were fine.

 

[GavH]

I'm still relatively new to all this myself, but all my brews once bottled have been put in a cupboard in our (unheated) Utility Room. No problems with carbonation or clearing yet. Admittedly, I suspect they might clear quicker if I put them in the garage instead, which I intend to do with my latest batch of Pilsner. I suspect the 2 weeks warm - 2 weeks cold is, like a lot of homebrew rituals, by no means the only way to achieve the same result.

 

[Diggerg]

I was under the impression that the warm/cold thing was to allow the yeasties to ferment the priming sugar to create co2. The cold session then allows the gas to be absorbed by the liquid as cold liquids hold more gas.

 

[desert drinker]

I'm conditioning a batch of St Peters Ruby Red at the moment, I bottled on the 17th. Problem I have is that its pretty warm in my home, generally I have the air conditioning set at 26DegC. I guess that this would make it carbonate more quickly, but are there any drawbacks regarding off-flavours etc likely to occur?

 

[foxy]

In answer to your question desert drinker no, it shouldn't go off if the room temp is 26 C then the bottles on the floor should not hit that temp but it is advised to leave them at the same temperature that the beer was fermented for a couple of weeks and then to somewhere cool.