conditioning

[steveb]

I know this is all up to conditions,temps etc
But what are your opinions for the ideal time before starting to drink a brew?
I imagine that my stout will take longer than my bitter to round of the rough edges(both are youngs harvester kits)
Cheers

 

[Muddydisco]

As a general rule of thumb I use 1 week per 10 gravity point's. EG, 1050 OG beer is 50 point's ie 5 weeks, But it's all down to personal taste, If it tastes good drink it!!! :

 

[Wez]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

+1

 

[steveb]

sorry wes but what the hell is that all about??

 

[Wez]

^^^^^^^^^^ (pointing to post above)

+1 (plus one in agreement)

:thumb:

 

[tubby_shaw]

This is all very subjective :hmm:
In my experience some beers are best drunk young Dark mild and Heffe Weisse are two that spring to mind for me :thumb:
But some ,IPA, Barley Wine, Imperial stout need at least six months and probably a year or more to come to their best :thumb:

But in general one week per ten points of starting gravity is a good rule of thumb

 

[Vossy1]

Agree with everything above.
I think it's very much personal choice and you owe it to yourself to experiment.
An easy way to do this is to condition for the full length of time, but try a sneaky sample every week until it's aged, you'll soon find out what you prefer.

 

[jonewer]

But some ,IPA, Barley Wime, Imperial stout need at least six months and probably a year or more to come to their best

Can I ask why?

 

[ano]

But some ,IPA, Barley Wime, Imperial stout need at least six months and probably a year or more to come to their best

Can I ask why?

The beer still has things going on in it, diacetyl and DMS both take time to break down. I don't know why it takes longer in high gravity beers, maybe there's just more of them in the beer or the yeast (central to metabolisation of diacetyl for example) is less inclined to do anything at higher alcohol concentrations. Also diacetyl is ok to a certain extent in some ales, and some people have taste 'blindspots' so wouldn't notice it if it was there anyway.

 

[Varnish]

I work in the flavour industry.
We do a bit of work with chemicals like diacetyl and dms.

For those of you that haven't tried them on there own, diacetyl is a buttery, creamy, butterscotch type flavour. It's present in large amounts in butter (suprisingly).

DMS (dimethylsuphide) is a very volitle chemical on its own. But will stick around in solution. It will degrade quickly however, and become less noticeable in time. It has a taste very similar to sweet corn, its kind of dirty sweetcorn - more sulphery.

Anyway, on conditioning;
I would like a very clear brew.

Would it be worth moving from the primary to a secondary then into the corny after a few weeks? After letting everything settle.
The seconday would be another plastic bucket and I hear these are not so good for long term storage as they allow oxygen to pass through them.

Or should I just leave it in the primary for a month or so then rack it into the corny?

 

[tubby_shaw]

Please remember that unless you are using auxiliary finings you are only going to remove yeast in suspension by extended resting.
Also remember that unless you are force carbonating then your beer will cloud up again and throw a further sediment as it consumes the priming sugars.
If you wish to rest the beer for an extended time it is better to rack into a secondary vessel to remove the beer from the trub as there is the possibility that there will be some degradation of the yeast and trub over time which will taint the flavour of your beer.
Your choice of secondary vessel will be fine for a months storage, but I wouldn't leave it much longer than a month before kegging and bottling with primings.

 

[Varnish]

Okay so,

Use finings in pimary? Then rack into secondary.
Leave for a month (I'm afraid I can't leave it longer as I have friends coming mid september).
Then rack into corny and force carbonate.

Sounds simple enough.

Thanks