Chill or not chill prior to entering competion...

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I want to enter an IPA in a couple comps coming up and I was wondering if it would be better to chill the bottles in the fridge for a month or so before hand or not. Just wondering what others do.
 
Well, I guess it would depend on the beer! If it's got some chill haze or clarity issues, I'd carb it up then chill it to get rid of any haze. If it's not quite aged enough, I'd keep it at room temperature. If it's absolutely perfect now, and you want to preserve that by slowing down the aging, then cellar temps (or the fridge) would be preferable.
 
Well, I guess it would depend on the beer! If it's got some chill haze or clarity issues, I'd carb it up then chill it to get rid of any haze. If it's not quite aged enough, I'd keep it at room temperature. If it's absolutely perfect now, and you want to preserve that by slowing down the aging, then cellar temps (or the fridge) would be preferable.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense.
 
The hop qualities tend to quickly disappear in a beer as it ages and warmer temperatures tend to accelerate the aging process in beer. I definitely prefer my IPAs as fresh as possible and start drinking my DIPAs about 3 weeks after brewing.

With that said, if you feel the other components of your beer are a little rough around the edges and would benefit from a month of aging, leave the number of bottles you think you would need for competition at room temperature (plus a bottle or two for you to sample). Put the rest of the bottles in the fridge. When it's time to send your bottles away for the competition, compare one of the room temperature bottles with the one of the refrigerated bottles and let that determine which bottles to send.
 
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