why don't we worry about autolyzed yeast in bottle-conditioned beer?
 

One of the reasons people give for racking to secondary is to prevent sitting on a yeast cake for many weeks. Why don't we worry about this in bottle-conditioned beers which can sit on residual yeast for months?

Because autolysis is not as prevalent as we homebrewers tend to obsess about. Sure, it happens but tends to take either some extreme conditions or more time than we give credit for.

Fact is, some brewer read about autolysis, took it out of context, had a flaw that resembled the character, and set a fire under that witches brew.

+1 I think most homebrewers now are going longer in the primary and forgoing the secondary. A lot of recent research and opinion by John Palmer, etc discuss that autolysis is really not the problem it was made out to be in the mid 90s.

Yup...and as gila we don't worry about autolysis any more in our fermenters, so we worry even less about it in our bottles...Having un autolysed bottle conditioned beer ALONE should be proof that the idea of autolysis isn't as big a concern as it was 30 years ago when yeast was less healthy than it is now.


The consciousness has changed, even the very same authors who cautioned against it are changing their tune in the light of the fact that yeast is healthier and better than it used to be.

Quite the contrary, there's been a shift in brewing culture over the last 5 years, now it is realized that rather than causing off flavors, prolonged yeast contact may actually clean up off flavors. Because if we don't rush our yeast off the yeast cake, the yeast has the opportunity to actually clean up after itself. Many many many brewers skip secondary altogehter and opt instead for a month long primary. I've been doing this for 5 years, and have never had an off flavor, just the opposite, i've been winning awards for my beers.

I just bottles a beer that was 5.5 months in primary, and was beautiful.

People have successfully left there beers in primary for a year with no signs of the dreaded boogeyman.

This is the most discussed topic on here, there's plenty of info. CURRENT INFO

I primary all my beers a minimum of a month minimum.

Read this....

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

You also don't really have a "cake" in your bottle-conditioned beers. When a beer is sitting in primary, there's a much higher ratio of yeast-to-beer than there is, the tiny amount of yeast that settles out in the bottom of the bottle.

There's also a whole bunch of trub and hop material to go bad (spoil) in the primary...not that it always does.

check thish out www.draymans.com/articles/arts/16.html i do lov making beer, look @ lodon alot of dies back in the 19 but the people still live from the beer. its on the media, there was a show about that on tv shows. p.s had a few but still the same of home brew.

Personally, I minimally primary all my beers for a minimum of a month minimum. ;)

I kid, but seriously... I usually do 3-4 weeks in the primary before I bottle. My sours are left in the primary for sometimes years and there must be no autolysis in them, because they've won trophies. So there's that.

As so well stated above, todays yeasts along with improved homebrewing techniques and modern equipment have taken the skunk out of hombrew that was pretty common way back in the days of bakers yeast and stoneware crocks.:)

bosco

Huh?