secondary vs. bottle conditioning

yusky2 · 10-17-2008, 05:11 AM

what is the major difference between aging your beer in the bottle as apposed to the secondary? i know its good to condition it for a long time but is it better in the secondary and then just bottles to carbonate or should one try to get the beer bottled in a timely fashion? i have been following 1 week primary-2 weeks secondary-3 weeks bottled but i was thinking what would be different if it was 1-3-2 or even 1-5-2 or 1-2-5. can anyone clear up the differences between these aging processes?

thanks.

ifishsum · 10-17-2008, 08:18 AM

I'm certainly not the most experienced brewer, but the way I see it, aging is aging. Beer really needs 3 weeks in the bottle to carbonate properly, so a longer secondary really won't shorten that time but it may make a better tasting beer. So will letting it sit in bottles for longer. For me it's easier to store and age bottled and I prefer taste testing carbonated beer, so I bottle once it drops clear in the secondary.

I've adopted a 10day/10day/3week schedule for my brews, then start sampling. It frees up my equipment every 10-14 days for a new brew, and seems to work for me so far. I have yet to make any real big beers that needed a lot of aging.

**Revvy** · 10-17-2008, 10:01 AM

it's not a "vs" it's not one or the other....if you bottle you still have to bottle condition..bottle conditioning is a process that actually involves the yeast producing co2, and the co2 filling the headspace in the bottle *carbonation*, then reabsorbing itself back into the soulution, this helps further"scrub" any chemical compounds in the beer (greeness) additionally the yeasties also do like they do if you skip secondary and leave on the yeastcake for a mont, they clean up after themselves.

The act of carbonation is like a mini-fermentation. In fact some new brewers who stare incessantly at their bottles actually notice krauzens forming....just like in the primar. These fall down, just like in primary, taking with it any proteins and esters (off flavors) with it.

You NEED the built up CO2 to have Bottle conditioning....Bittle conditioning is tied hand in hand with carbonmation, you really don't get the conditioning till after the headspace is full of CO2 and pushing itself back in solution.

THe secondary is primarily for a VISUAL CLEARING of the beer...It does marry the flavors somewhat, but primarily it is to let stuff settle out of the beer.

You still need a period for Carbonation to build up and then reactions from the CO2 AND activity from the living microorganism in the bottle (the yeasts)

It's a living process remember...

FOr more on bottle Conditioning/carbonation read this...

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/558191-post101.html