is carbonation part of conditioning activities

[perfection]

I would like to get complete clarity on the term CONDITIONING.
Reading the web about "bottle/can/cask conditioning" i see a lot of emphasis on the carbonation aspect leading me to understand (possibly incorrectly) that carbonation is among other activities part of conditioning

(1) Are conditioning activities yeast resultant and yeast oriented ONLY - flavor maturation (such as diacetyl rests) and the beer dropping bright (possibly assisted by fining agents)?

(2) I understand carbonation can be BEFORE (spundign in a primary), CONCURRENT (with the ageing green beer in secondary tanks) or forced AFTER ageing in secondary tanks. If carbonation is indeed a part of conditioning, would it include both natural yeast carbonation that gets dissolved at any stage of production AND force carbbing using tanks of CO2 ? What about force carbbing with harvested CO2 from fermentation phase?

(3) are stabilization activities like gravity dropping (or forced to drop using PVPP) of protein complexes that cause non-biological haze (or forced to drop using PVPP) part of conditioning?

(4) ageing, maturation, ruh storage, secondary fermentation are they all the same referring to conditioning phase of new make beer ?

(5) is there a problem of semantics with respect to this word with brewers from different countries understanding the term differently?

Thanks for clarity on this issue

 

[odie]

my eyes hurt reading all that.

to me "conditioning" means letting it sit and age/mellow.

Carbonating is not "conditioning" IMO but it will happen anyway as the first part of the conditioning process.

If conditioning in a bottle, then yes, carbonating from priming sugar is part of that.

If conditioning in a keg, there will still be "carbonating" from either priming sugar or a CO2 bottle. Without carbonating you will not get it out of the keg.

 

[hotbeer]

There isn't any one standard that we all go by so don't let it mess with your mind.

To me carbonating can be considered part of the process or you can separate it out. However conditioning is going on from the time you bottle or keg your beer till it's all gone. Carbonation, if being done by adding sugar or krausening is only for a brief period. Usually two weeks.

1. No. Sometimes. Maybe.
2. Pick a method of making beer and go with those procedures. You seem to be lumping together everything trying to make a universal rule or definition.
3. Not required. You could if you want.
4. depends on what beer making procedures you choose to use. My bottles are my secondary fermenter.
5. very likely. Also the differences between commercial brewers, craft brewer, home brewers on a large scale and home brewers on a small scale.

You're welcome, but now I'm more confused than ever.

If we all did everything beer perfectly the same. We'd all be drinking the same beer. How boring would that be?

 

[perfection]

Thanks both.
I was trying to get a generalized view of things in order to put it across easily in a student basic learning session

 

[MicroMickey]

When you package a beer (bottle or keg) you normally add either priming sugar or krausen to the beer to generate fizz. That will normally be done within a week or so. However, it won't raise a head when poured. In my experience, that takes 2 to 3 weeks to happen. The reason is that the CO2 is converting to Carbonic Acid (H2CO3).

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I was trying to get a generalized view of things in order to put it across easily in a student basic learning session

I would separate out the terms:

"Bottle Conditioned", which just mean that the beer was naturally carbonated in a bottle by adding additional sugar (and maybe yeast).

"Conditioning", which is a general term that wraps up steps like aging, settling, lagering, etc. I could let a beer condition (uncarbonated) for a month in the fermenter, or for 2 months in a fridge, or for 6 months in a bottle.