What's the difference between bottle conditioning and bottling?

BendBrewer said:

Bottling is the act of putting beer into a bottle.

Bottle conditioning is the act of carbonating your beer in the bottle due to the additional fermentation process that takes place in a sealed bottle.

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Kegstand said:

Ok...because I read that when you bottle it you should let it sit for a few weeks. Then, to make the beer even better you should CONDITION it for an extra week by either putting it in the fridge or keeping it out.

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Kegstand said:

Ok...because I read that when you bottle it you should let it sit for a few weeks. Then, to make the beer even better you should CONDITION it for an extra week by either putting it in the fridge or keeping it out.

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Revvy said:

That's someone mis-interpretation of it. Except in the case of lagers where the yeast is active in the cold. For ale yeast, they just go dormant in temps below 55...little conditioning can happen if the guys who are supposed to be doing the job are asleep, right?

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Kegstand said:

That someone is the instructions in the Mr. Beer Brewer's Guide.

Word for word...this is what it says:

"After your beer has carbonated it is ready to drink. However, to improve the flavor of your beer even more you may want to condition it. Conditioning will allow your beer's flavor to mature and result in an even better tasting beer. This can be done one of two ways:"

Then goes on to say you can do warm conditioning or cold conditioning.

So yeah, now you can see why I was confused. :rockin:

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Revvy said:

Well, it is from Mr Beer isn't it? They also say you can bottle after a week too, right?

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Kegstand said:

Yeah...and being a new brewer, who would argue otherwise after reading the instructions?

It's a good thing I found this forum to get real advice...otherwise I'd be screwed.

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