sean-arthur
Member
Ok, here's the rub: this works in the bottle, but how to do it in five or ten gallon batches? Hopefully a scientist can explain the science.
So, I make a beer, any beer, any style, any method. I brew in 5 gallon batches. I bottle in flip top 750 ml or 1 litre bottles, and of course store out of the sun, and of course take great pains to sanitize.
After a month in the bottles, the beer is tops, as expected. However, I also sample as soon as the beer in the bottles clears.
One of the reasons I use flip tops is because I hate drawing ANY sediment from the bottle, but I also passionately hate dumping 10 % or more of every bottle, and with flip tops its possible to snap the top back on and put an unfinished bottle in the fridge to clear again.
This beer, a part bottle, never tastes as good as when first decanted, as expected. some Oxygen has enter the bottle.
But I what I do is this: I immediately snap the top back on after the pour and put in the fridge. When I have enough part bottles, I pour them into a single bottle that I have just decanted.
I don't do anything special. Don't use a funnel, don't sanitize, just pour four or five part bottles into the just opened bottle (that has beer left in the bottom...).
One thing to note is that even in the fridge these part bottles always have some 'pop' to them, some CO2, when opened again.
I leave a very small space in the neck, perhaps three centimeters. Then I vigorously shake the bottle and put it back in the fridge until it clears, usually about a week or so.
At this point, the beer is anywhere from a month to six weeks from original bottling. Because it has been in the fridge, it has been laagering. Since I tend to slightly over-carbonate my beers there might be some protection from oxidization.
The resulting beer is heads and above more complex than the original beer!!
The mouth feel is rich and smooth and complex. The carbonation is light, as expected, like an old fashioned English draft ale. The malt side has lost any edginess, or that odd off flavour that's hard to get rid of if you are using malt syrup extracts and the hop flavours are mellowed and better blended.
These improvements are noticeable in all styles, although more prominent in darker ales.
what is remarkable to me is that the same beer, at week six or later, in the original bottling and stored in the fridge does not have these same characteristics, and is generally starting to head on the downside, losing that sparkle and freshness of a peak bottled beer. Although as expected some heavy gravity beers continue to evolve positively...
I have tried also using less priming sugar, and even true krauzing. I have left the beer in the secondary longer, have tried laagering in the primary, have tried racking several times in the secondary, but its not the same.
I have left pale ale in quart bottles (capped) for six months just above or at freezing (the beer did not freeze). This beer came closest to the texture and smoothness of what I described, but not quite as good mouth feel, and much less malty.
So, chemically, what is happening? And knowing this, how to replicate in the Homebrew process, pre bottling, so that the bottled beer, at week four or six, has the same characteristics?
Or, is this not possible except in the bottle any other way, but do-able if kegging? I have had pints of English style ales from micro breweries that were the very first pints drawn from a fresh, just delivered and tapped keg that had these characteristics.
I'd like to know what insights are out there!
Cheers,
Sean Arthur.
So, I make a beer, any beer, any style, any method. I brew in 5 gallon batches. I bottle in flip top 750 ml or 1 litre bottles, and of course store out of the sun, and of course take great pains to sanitize.
After a month in the bottles, the beer is tops, as expected. However, I also sample as soon as the beer in the bottles clears.
One of the reasons I use flip tops is because I hate drawing ANY sediment from the bottle, but I also passionately hate dumping 10 % or more of every bottle, and with flip tops its possible to snap the top back on and put an unfinished bottle in the fridge to clear again.
This beer, a part bottle, never tastes as good as when first decanted, as expected. some Oxygen has enter the bottle.
But I what I do is this: I immediately snap the top back on after the pour and put in the fridge. When I have enough part bottles, I pour them into a single bottle that I have just decanted.
I don't do anything special. Don't use a funnel, don't sanitize, just pour four or five part bottles into the just opened bottle (that has beer left in the bottom...).
One thing to note is that even in the fridge these part bottles always have some 'pop' to them, some CO2, when opened again.
I leave a very small space in the neck, perhaps three centimeters. Then I vigorously shake the bottle and put it back in the fridge until it clears, usually about a week or so.
At this point, the beer is anywhere from a month to six weeks from original bottling. Because it has been in the fridge, it has been laagering. Since I tend to slightly over-carbonate my beers there might be some protection from oxidization.
The resulting beer is heads and above more complex than the original beer!!
The mouth feel is rich and smooth and complex. The carbonation is light, as expected, like an old fashioned English draft ale. The malt side has lost any edginess, or that odd off flavour that's hard to get rid of if you are using malt syrup extracts and the hop flavours are mellowed and better blended.
These improvements are noticeable in all styles, although more prominent in darker ales.
what is remarkable to me is that the same beer, at week six or later, in the original bottling and stored in the fridge does not have these same characteristics, and is generally starting to head on the downside, losing that sparkle and freshness of a peak bottled beer. Although as expected some heavy gravity beers continue to evolve positively...
I have tried also using less priming sugar, and even true krauzing. I have left the beer in the secondary longer, have tried laagering in the primary, have tried racking several times in the secondary, but its not the same.
I have left pale ale in quart bottles (capped) for six months just above or at freezing (the beer did not freeze). This beer came closest to the texture and smoothness of what I described, but not quite as good mouth feel, and much less malty.
So, chemically, what is happening? And knowing this, how to replicate in the Homebrew process, pre bottling, so that the bottled beer, at week four or six, has the same characteristics?
Or, is this not possible except in the bottle any other way, but do-able if kegging? I have had pints of English style ales from micro breweries that were the very first pints drawn from a fresh, just delivered and tapped keg that had these characteristics.
I'd like to know what insights are out there!
Cheers,
Sean Arthur.