Bottle conditioning and storing

[Ryan Perkins]

Hi guys, what is the preferred method of bottle conditioning and storing conditioned beer?

My current method is three weeks at 19 degrees in a temperature controlled fridge and a week at 4 degrees before I will drink any. This seems to work fine and the beer tastes good and without any off flavours but as time goes on they seem to deteriorate one way or an other.

If I leave them in the fridge they eventually become sweet tasting and smell like caramel and left at room temp they become estery? I would have thought after a month of conditioning the remaining yeast activity would have little effect on flavour?

Any thoughts or advice? Although I don't have any issues drinking them all before the get to this stage it would be good be able to put a few aside for a bit of variety later down the track.

Cheers

[Peter Smith]

When you say time goes on you mean another 3 weeks or like 3 months?

I find the hoppy ales best 3-5 weeks , but stouts porters best after 3 months at least.  In fact I tend not to bother opening them for at least 2 months and even then they are still often sharp, as they go on the roasted flavors seem to meld together.

I just leave everything under house in the dark at 18C in summer, and its  12C in winter, and put into fridge about 3-5 days before drinking (I think this makes a difference to flavours). One thing to note if your beers have any off flavours I find that some like DMS  seem to get worse not better as time goes on, I know some people say some faults age out, my experience is that you can still taste the DMS fault.  

There is no doubt that dark beers full of different roasted malts age well and taste different at 3,6,9,12 months etc.

Perhaps also its possible the amount of yeast getting into the bottle has something to do with it, I crash my beers at 2C for 5 days before bottling to get as much yeast as possible to drop out.  Still have no issues with carb as there is enough yeast still there.

I take every brew that I bottle and put a date on one bottle and add to a ledge under house where I never have a beer until its 12 months old.   I also reckon most kit beers taste better after a few months in the bottle vs weeks.

[Ryan Perkins]

Thanks for your reply Peter.

I'd say about another 1 - 2 months in addition to the month of conditioning.  I am pretty new to brewing and so far have only been making IPA's and I guess these are best fresh anyway.

DMS could be a possibility, I don't have a wort chiller but I generally get it down to 20 degrees in about 20 minutes as I am only doing small batches.

I have been cold crashing for about 4 days at 4 degrees to drop out the hops and yeast but recently I have been adding a few grains of dry yeast to each bottle due to low carbonation.

I guess there could be faults in the beer that I don't recognise at first that amplify over time like you say with DMS.

I might have to test my willpower and  keep a few to try at 6 months and then 12 to see how they develop.

[Peter Smith]

But DMS doesnt taste caramel or estery tho its more cabbage/corn to most people...  I can say that heavily hopped ipas can mask a few off flavors as bottle age so does the hop and perhaps the flavours are coming through, bring a bottle or two to the next WBC competition and let some of the gun brewers comment on your beer, its worthwhile.

[Ryan Perkins]

Yeah it doesn't taste like cabbage or corn so it can't be that.  Would leaving it in the fridge for long periods have an effect? Once it has conditioned I just leave it all in there so I don't have to keep moving it from one place to another.

Where is the WBC competition held? Feedback from the pro's would be good.

[Dan]

Assuming we are talking all grain brewing then here's my experience with bottle conditioning:

Pilsners - best within 2 weeks to one month

IPA's/ APAs Pales etc - best within 1-3 months

Really malty numbers (stouts, porters etc) - 6 months to one year easy

Saison - Only brewed one and had it in the bottle since Jan. Just seems to be getting better and better!!

I just bottle mine and sit them in the garage out of the sun. They tend to sit at about 16deg ave. I dont crash cool, except for my pilsners which get lagered.

When I used to do kits and extract beers then I found 3 months before drinking them was the magic number.

Cheers

[Ryan Perkins]

Thanks Dan, must be hard waiting 6 months to a year I struggle to wait one month!

[Ryan Perkins]

Thanks Guy those podcasts were very helpful..

After watching I think I can rule out temperature and light but I can definitely improve on the oxygen uptake.

Unfortunately it means buying more equipment; a CO2 bottle for purging oxygen when bottling, a pump and oxygen stone to add oxygen to the cooled wort and a new brew kettle. The kettle I use at the moment is brushed steel and up until now I didn't even think about it adding iron and the effects that it has on the wort.

Hopefully making these few changes will improve the beer and keep it fresh for longer.

[Paws Xa]

RO water is just a form of filtered water commonly avaliable in the US. Its used for diluting hard water for brewing and isn't realted to oxygen content. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis

[Ryan Perkins]

I suspect it is brushed steel as it is just a cheapie from the wharehouse and there is a bit of discolouration forming on the inside, its about time to upgrade anyway and now I have an excuse!

I think I will eventually move into kegs too once I can make beer worthy to keg but as Scott says below one may not be enough.

[Scott H]

That Charlie bamforth one was really good I remember listening to it a while back. Since I've been kegging I rarely use bottles. Unfortunately it means my stouts don't get to age much. Need another keg or 2 >.< so much gear I want and not enough $$$

[Paws Xa]

Guy could you please link to any information on copper in the brew process? I have a copper coil in my HLT for mash recirc and would like to know if its worth upgrading to stainless and why.

[Paws Xa]

Cheers, will have a look.