Is it better to bottle condition a bit warm or cold?

Just bottled my first brew (christmas ale from AHS). Tastes good but a bit cloudy. I'm happy with it.

I have two choices with the bottle conditioning. I can let it sit at room temperature 78-82F or I can put in the fridge (as many as will fit). With the possibly exception of cracking one open on friday before I go away (I know its too early but I have no willpower!), whatever I do with them in the next day or two is how they will stay for three weeks (minimum) as I'll be away.

I'm leaning towards leavign them at the warmer temp (fermentation was kept cool by keeping in cold AC) and then putting them in the fridge for a couple of days at least before drinking.

Thoughts?

If all fermentation is done, the higher temps would be better, but 65-70F would be much better.

Find a closet............Never mind!........Jamaica.........Jamaica..........

It will be fine!

If you put it in the fridge to try to carb and condition them, it will take forever if it carbs at all. If you put the yeast to sleep which is what happens when you drop the yeast colder than it's dormancy temp, then how is it going to do anything for you? A sleeping yeast isn't going to be eating the sugar and farting co2, or cleaning up it's byproducts, is it?

Looks like everyone is confirming what I thought, I suspected fridge would be too cold and it would be better to be slightly too warm than way too cold. Thanks.

Next batch will (hopefully) be fermented in a chest reezer with temp control which is where I will then condition the bottles. Running AC 24/7 any more would be too much (it's already making strange noises after being on continuously during fermentation!!).

I wonder how people did homebrew before the internet?!!!

EDIT - what effect will bottle conditioning at a higher temp have - carbed sooner, longer to clear????

I've put my beer in my 90+F attic to speed-condition, and it didn't cause any problems or funny tastes that I could detect.

BetterSense said:

I've put my beer in my 90+F attic to speed-condition, and it didn't cause any problems or funny tastes that I could detect.

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The worst thing that could possibly happen is that it wouldn't store well long term. It may get stale sooner that if you hadn't...Maybe.

If it's not a beer you plan on laying up, and just quaffing, then I wouldn't worry.

Bottle conditioning at those temps does not present nearly the risk to flavor that active fermentation would.

At those temps though, you want to be absolutely sure you did not bottle with excessive fermentables (as in rushed from fermenter to bottle too soon). Carbonation will be...um...aggressive at those temps and if there was a lot of remaining sugars, the risk will be higher than normal for cracked bottles or cap eruptions.

Definitely do not try to carbonate at refrigerated temps.

Is 64 too cold to carb? I typically carb in my basement. My last two beers seemed a tad under carbed, even with 5 oz priming sugar. I thought the recent onset of cold temps could be my culprit.

tgmartin000 said:

Is 64 too cold to carb? I typically carb in my basement. My last two beers seemed a tad under carbed, even with 5 oz priming sugar. I thought the recent onset of cold temps could be my culprit.

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The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend tends to be the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer.

Using the 3 weeks at 70 as the "mean" an average grav beer at a temp below 70 may take a little longer than one above. Consequently, an average beer beer significantly above 70 may take less time to carb up. (I say may, because there is still a process that the beer has to go through to produce enough gas to carbonate the beer, and that takes time to generate no matter what temp it is at.)

68 is relative close to 70, so 3 weeks is still the rule of thumb.....but if the same beer was at 64 degrees, though not a lot of temp range to us, may indeed be enough to add a week to the carb/conditioning cycle.

In some beers, but maybe not for others....

It's pretty imprecise, every beer/yeast combo is different (we're dealing with living micro-organisms afterall and there always is a wild card factor) but the 3 weeks at 70 tends to be a nice "rule of thumb" to go by for beers in the 1.050 range or below.

I give "most" of my brews 4 weeks room temp, 65-70*. Then toss em in the fridge and drink at will.

I'm going to bring some upstairs for a week and see how that helps. Both beers are about 1.07,and they've both been bottled for 4 weeks. I used Palmer's nomograph, temp vs volumes of co2, with a temp of 64.

Regardless, the beers are still good - Denny's rye ipa and a quad infusion mash Belgian golden strong. Yum!

I've seen a lot of poasts that say 3 weeks at 70, more at lower temp, possibly less at higher. Is there any information on the effect of temperature on carbonation rate? I'm not going to touch it for 3 weeks than hopefully a couple of days in the fridge will make it ready.

3 weeks at 78-80 for bottle conditioning turned out great (as did the beer in general). Thanks for all the advice. Details of my experience here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/getting-started-small-batches-caribbean-273914/#post3552917