Bottle Conditioning

Howdy,

I'm curious to try, but nervous too, doing a bottle conditioned brew. Are there types of Ales and/or Lagers that are better for doing this, or will benefit... brews that shouldn't be?

Cheers,
J

It depend on your taste but my rule of thumb is to bottle lagers and barrel ales, with the exception, if I want to see what a beer would taste like if I kept it for over 6 months, I will bottle that.
Bottling produces a very fizzy beer, often equal to cola type drinks which I think is a bit much for any ale.

Bottle conditioning means there is live yeast in the bottle. Commercial operations either filter out the yeast or kill it with heat or chemicals. As a homebrewer, it is just about impossible to not have live yeast in the brew, so you are already bottle conditioning.

Wasn't that easy!

Seriously, were you planning on trying a different yeast or priming agents?

jaymack said:

Howdy,

I'm curious to try, but nervous too, doing a bottle conditioned brew. Are there types of Ales and/or Lagers that are better for doing this, or will benefit... brews that shouldn't be?

Cheers,
J

Click to expand...

i think ales benefit the most from bottle conditioning. whats happening is really a second fermentation that not only traps c02 but also some desirable yeast by-products that end up in the finished product. its the closest thing to 'real ale' or cask conditioned ale like all beer used to be.
and you can give it away!

And all that yeast has vitamin b complex to help combat hangovers.

There is still a few breweries that bottle condition. I was just drinking a bridgeport IPA the other day. It stated on the bottle that they prime with yeast on malt to carb the beer. There was a nice ring in the bottom of the bottle of yeasties......yummm

There are a large amount of 'live' beers(sediment in the bottle) in the UK,and when i next brew i am going to invite a few family members and friends to help me drink a crate or two of Youngs Champion Ale(lots of sediment...hopefully lots of yeast)...cultivate and see what happens!!!!!

Colin

jaymack said:

I'm curious to try, but nervous too, doing a bottle conditioned brew. Are there types of Ales and/or Lagers that are better for doing this, or will benefit... brews that shouldn't be?

Click to expand...

Well I don't keg, so as far as I'm concerned any ale or lager is good for bottle conditioning.

Passload said:

And all that yeast has vitamin b complex to help combat hangovers.

Click to expand...

What's a hangover? Never had a hangover with homebrew!

Bottle conditioning is excellent for big beers. This allows you to age them without using up alot of your resources like kegs or large dark spaces to hold them.

Wild

Interesting replies. As always, a helpful bunch of lads this place sure do offer

My biggest fear is the good ol' "exploding bottle" syndrome. I usually Prime for a week and Secondary for 2 solid weeks before bottling. Should I stay in my Primary longer, if I opt to condition bottle?

Cheers,
J

You should keep the beer in the primary until it's finished fermenting. That may be a week, or it may be longer depending on the beer. If you do that you won't have to worry about bottle bombs.

Three weeks is normally enough for all but the biggest beers. As EP suggests, leave the ale in the fermenter until it's done, let it settle for two weeks and you won't have to worry about bombs.

The bigger the beer, the more it will benefit from a long time in the bottle. I have some stouts and barley wines that are several years old.

The only way i've ever really experienced homebrew was out of the bottle and into a pint glass, so i agree, all ales and lagerse are good for bottling.

SkewedAle

Primary: Gus Pale Ale
Secondary: Don't use one yet
Drinking: IPA