Aging before carbonating

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Keb

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Is this actually possible? It seems like most people talk about aging their brew in either a keg or bottle. To me that means they have already carbonated or are in the process of carbonating. So would extending your secondary "clarifying" stage count as aging, even though the beer is not carbonated?

For more background info, this is my first time trying to give a brew a few months extra time to age after fermentation. I'm brewing a breakfast stout recipe based off of founders. I only have one keg and was going to keep another brew in that for drinking while the stout aged a few months. Would it work the same just to leave it in the secondary and after a few months keg, carb, and drink right away? Will it taste different than if I had kegged, carbed, then stored away in the keg?

Thanks for the info all.
 
In my experience, carbonated beer doesn't condition any faster than non-carbonated beer. Leave it in the secondary for months and then keg.

P.S. Buy some more kegs!!!!
 
Keb said:
Is this actually possible? It seems like most people talk about aging their brew in either a keg or bottle. To me that means they have already carbonated or are in the process of carbonating. So would extending your secondary "clarifying" stage count as aging, even though the beer is not carbonated?

For more background info, this is my first time trying to give a brew a few months extra time to age after fermentation. I'm brewing a breakfast stout recipe based off of founders. I only have one keg and was going to keep another brew in that for drinking while the stout aged a few months. Would it work the same just to leave it in the secondary and after a few months keg, carb, and drink right away? Will it taste different than if I had kegged, carbed, then stored away in the keg?

Thanks for the info all.
Click to expand...

Hello...In general beers are fermented for two weeks, then conditioned for another week, this conditioning phase is where the yeast continue to work eating byproducts and heavier sugars, this is also where the beer clears up...then if you need to age/condition a beer longer, you would rack away from your yeast at this point to prevent the yeast from eating the trub and putting off flavors in to your beer...some beer's at this point will benefit from different temperatures of storage and is why you may here people racking them to a keg...after it has aged then you would want to attach the co2 and carbonate. I hope this answers your question.
 
The link isn't quite what I mean. I'm talking about times where you just want the beer to age and mature for taste, not comparing to the time spent in bottles to carb.

Also to further clarify the beer has already been racked off the yeast in the primary and moved to a secondary. That is where I am trying to age it.
 
Keb said:
The link isn't quite what I mean. I'm talking about times where you just want the beer to age and mature for taste, not comparing to the time spent in bottles to carb.

Also to further clarify the beer has already been racked off the yeast in the primary and moved to a secondary. That is where I am trying to age it.
Click to expand...

If it's racked to a secondary you can leave it for as long as you want to age it...I usually leave a stout in a secondary for a month, then bottle (I rarely keg them)...I would recommend reading John Palmers fermentation section: http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html
 
Yeah I've read palmers book. Just wanted to double check for my own sanity. Thanks all I'll just leave it in the secondary.
 
I am in the process of aging my uncarbed barleywine for nine months. The recipe called for a total age of 1 year. So, yes, I believe it is a common practice for bigger beers.
 

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