Bulk Age Then Bottling?

[blanchmd]

Hi all -- I have a RIS (11%) bulk aging now for about 5 months, and was planning to let it go another 6 or so. Easy enough to keg, but this is a beer I think will just get better over time and once in the keg, soon in the belly

I'm worried if I bottle after a year, I won't have sufficient yeast to carb it up. Thoughts?

 

[xpops]

you should be fine. they just hang out dormant.

i guess a bigger question, is that if you took the time to age a RIS @ 11% for a year...is it a beer you want to put in a keg and go through quickly? seems like a beer you'd want to have once in a while, and not all at once?

and if in a keg, are you not force carbing?

maybe i'm not understanding something here?

 

[Revvy]

For a big beer, a year bulk aging, I would add yeast at bottling time...no biggie. Depending on the abv you could either go with CBC-1 OR champagne yeast it the abv is higher than the range of CBC-1

 

[blanchmd]

you should be fine. they just hang out dormant.

i guess a bigger question, is that if you took the time to age a RIS @ 11% for a year...is it a beer you want to put in a keg and go through quickly? seems like a beer you'd want to have once in a while, and not all at once?

and if in a keg, are you not force carbing?

maybe i'm not understanding something here?

Sorry I am not so clear -- I'm saying I don't want to keg for precisely that reason, I want it to last and to have bottles long down the road, see how it ages.

 

[Revvy]

Sorry I am not so clear -- I'm saying I don't want to keg for precisely that reason, I want it to last and to have bottles long down the road, see how it ages.

I got what you meant. LOL...

There are certain beers that I won't keg for the same reason.... I'll blow through them too fast. It's too convenient to just walk up to the keezer and pull....

With bottles I have to dig through the milk crates (which for some beers I have purposefully put in hard to get places) of bottles, put them in the fridge, wait a few hours or days... keeps me from chugging them in a night.

 

[xpops]

i follow now

agreed with revvy - just add some a little yeast at bottling time to avoid risking no carbonation. it will eventually just fall out of suspension anyways.

this raises another question about aging in the bottles. Does bottle conditioning provide longer stability for bottle aging? could you just force carb in keg, and bottle from there?

i'm fairly new to kegging and have not brewed up a beer requiring bulk aging aging yet since i started kegging...but is there really an advantage to bottle conditioning once you have the ability to force carb? other than maybe a sour and you dont want to risk contaminating keg gear?

cheers,

 

[sfrisby]

Another factor to consider is big beers can take months, even up to 6, to properly carb. So, after 6 more months of bulk ageing, then up to another 6 before it's ready to drink. Maybe consider bottling now and let sit another 6 before starting to drink.

 

[Revvy]

i follow now

agreed with revvy - just add some a little yeast at bottling time to avoid risking no carbonation. it will eventually just fall out of suspension anyways.

this raises another question about aging in the bottles. Does bottle conditioning provide longer stability for bottle aging? could you just force carb in keg, and bottle from there?

i'm fairly new to kegging and have not brewed up a beer requiring bulk aging aging yet since i started kegging...but is there really an advantage to bottle conditioning once you have the ability to force carb? other than maybe a sour and you dont want to risk contaminating keg gear?

cheers,

One of the ideas or theories is that actual carbonation from yeast in the bottles with consume any oxygen in the bottles or kicked up from the process, and also that as that yeast "cleans up after itself" it's going to further devour anything that could result in off flavors.

I don't know how true the first one is, plenty of aged beers are slightly oxydized...that become part of the character of the beer. Maybe it could be said that it REDUCES it... but eventually it's inevitable.