Marko73

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Hello all,

I am brewing MW Winter Ale tomorrow and it talks about aging the beer for 4 to 6 months to mellow out the flavors.

Total Noob question: Do I age in my secondary or do you age in the bottle? I do have some oxygen absorbing caps, but I am not sure if you age for 6 months in the secondary and then bottle as you normally would or if you bottle after a few weeks in the secondary and then age the ale in the bottles.

Thanks for you help! Happy 4th!

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homebeerbrewer

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I'd bottle as usual and age it that way. I don't think you will need the O2 absorbing caps for six months, that's not very long. However, if you plan to age for six years, I would use 'em.

cvstrat

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I'd go ahead and use the caps, but yeah you'd wanna age in bottle. Depending on the exact recipe, I'd probably leave it in primary for 2-4 weeks, rack to secondary, let it sit in secondary for another 2-4 weeks until all of the sediment is completely settled then bottle.

Wait 5 months or so from that point. Which will probably be hard to do it tastes good lol. Lock em up and give someone else the key

marubozo

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Interesting question as I'm brewing the same recipe this weekend. I wasn't sure about conditioning/aging procedures as well. But here is my plan of attack based on no experience, but rather my own best guesstimation as to what might work.

1 month in primary.
2 months in secondary
2-3 months in bottles

Was basically going to stick with the 1-2-3 method but use months instead of weeks. But if any experts out there say it's better to do the bulk of the aging in secondary, bottles, etc. then please share.

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brian_g

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My only concern would be if you have enough live yeast for carbonation. 3 months before bottling is getting pretty long in my opinion. If it were me, I'd probably do most of the aging in the bottle.
Is this a lager? If it's a lagar, 1 month in the primary doesn't seem as long, but I doubt 2 months in the secondary will add anything.

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david_42

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Bulk aging of big beers, like winter warmers, does make a difference. One can always add a packet of dry yeast to the bottling bucket, but I've kegged big beers at 3 months, primed them, and they carbonate just fine.

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brian_g

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Do you think it's an improvement over bottle aging? Logically, I don't see why it would make a difference, except that it may be sitting on a larger yeast bed then in the bottles.

In any case, as long as the poster knows to add yeast. I had one batch, where I added yeast before bottling. What I did was rehydrate the yeast with a couple of teaspoons of sugar, just to wake them up and get them going before pitching them into beer. I don't know if it was necessary, but it made me feel better anyway.

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Marko73

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This isn't a lager, it is a high gravity winter ale. Here is the description:

Winter Ale: Winter ales are designed to warm you from the inside as well as give audience to a host of unique flavors and spices. Caraway lends a subtle complex note to this dark, high gravity ale. Plan on brewing this one 4-6 months in advance of your target release date for a proper maturation. Our ingredients for this recipe include: 6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract, 3.3 lb. Gold liquid malt extract, 4 oz. Carafa II, 8 oz. Munich, 8 oz. Cara Wheat, 4 oz. Chocolate Rye, 4 oz. Melanoidin specialty grains, ½ tsp Caraway, 2 oz. of hops, priming sugar, muslin bag, and yeast.

I am not sure if that helps any, but I guess I would wonder about adding the yeast before bottling. Would I add another 11 gram Nottingham packet? That is the yeast I would be using for primary fermentation. I just wouldn't want to cause excess pressure with an active fermentation.

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"It is sheer folly to be taken by the hand and led down the path of better brewing by someone who says that they know it all. No, it is your experience that counts most. It is your experience that will always lead you to more questions."

~Charlie Papazian

Nurmey

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I so agree with David on bulk aging. For some reason aging in bulk gives you a better flavor as well as more consistent flavor between bottles.

I've aged for 6 to 8 months many times and never had to add yeast to carbonate.

Marko, do not add a whole packet of yeast. Remember that you only need a grain or two per bottle to carbonate. Once when I aged a beer for 18 months, I added about 2.5 grams of yeast just to be sure.

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Marko73

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Thanks Nurmey. I figured just a sprinkle would do it. Thanks for the clarification.

__________________
"It is sheer folly to be taken by the hand and led down the path of better brewing by someone who says that they know it all. No, it is your experience that counts most. It is your experience that will always lead you to more questions."

~Charlie Papazian