Porters and aging

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BoxerDog

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From what I have read, Stouts bennefit greatly from bottle conditioning. I was wondering if this applies to porters and if so how long of a bottle conditioning is needed for my porter? I will not be using a secondary (which will change in the near future). Thanks
 
BoxerDog said:
From what I have read, Stouts bennefit greatly from bottle conditioning. I was wondering if this applies to porters and if so how long of a bottle conditioning is needed for my porter? I will not be using a secondary (which will change in the near future). Thanks

I think it's a good idea to age any beer, nit just porters and stouts.

I've been struggling to get my own porter recipe 'right', and I thought that the latest batch (#13) was yet another "close but no cigar" batch. However, after an extra 6 weeks of cold conditioning, #13 seems to be what I was after all this time. 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 6 weeks cold conditioning, Yum.

SO... my personal experience is that you want some additional aging.

-walker
 
david_42 said:
I like to give porters two months or so.

I agree. Here's how my last porter went (as a datapoint)...

It was 'good' 4 weeks after brew day, had peaked about 9 weeks after the brew date and (I believe) was starting to decline after 13 weeks.

-walker
 
I agree with Walker-san. I think cold conditioning helps most beers.
I just happened to pour a pint of my porter and it has improved tremendously. The maltiness is emerging and it is just plain good. I kegged it about 3 weeks ago and I'm hoping that it will improve even more.
 
I happen to have a porter that's been in bottles for a week and a half at cool room temp, maybe around 68ºF. Can one of you guys explain just what temps cold-conditioning requires and how it compares to regular conditioning? I'm a little confused about this.
 
Torchiest said:
I happen to have a porter that's been in bottles for a week and a half at cool room temp, maybe around 68ºF. Can one of you guys explain just what temps cold-conditioning requires and how it compares to regular conditioning? I'm a little confused about this.

My personal defintion of cold conditioning is "serving temps or lower"... somewhere below the mid 50's.

Also, I did not mean to imply that it matters whether you cold condition or just condition longer at warmer temps. There might be a difference, but I don't know.

The fact that I cold conditioned mine is simply a byproduct of the fact that I keg my beers. Once they are in the keg, they go into the kegerator.

I might have enjoyed it just as much if I had conditioned longer at warmer temps, but I simply don't know.

Also.. if you are not force carbonating, and want to cold condition, you shouldn't use my numbers as your guide. You should let the beer condition in the bottles at warmer temps until the carbonation level is right. THEN go into the fridge with them. If you put them in the cold before the carbonation levels are right, you will retard the yeast and the beer might be flat.

Cold conditioning or lengthier warm conditioning is up to you, and I have no idea what specifically will be different based on which way you go. :D
 
Okay, cool. I thought I was missing out on some big secret. I'm getting a little better at letting my beer condition longer in the bottles, after slurping down the first three batches pretty quickly. Thanks for the info.
 
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