bottle conditioning?

I have my belgian tripel in the bottles, I bottled it this past sunday.

now my question is I know I should leave in the bottles until they get fully carbonated, but once they become fully carbonated can I put them all in the fridge to age them ?

Sure- it may help to clarify them a little more also.

SAWEET- so how long should I keep them out of the fridge?

In general, I would say a month

It's up to you. Usually once they are carbed, and I begin drinking them, I only put about a six pack or two's worth in the fridge. The rest I leave at room temp and add to the fridge as I drink the others.

so it takes about a month for them to carb and then age for another few weeks?

Showtime - see Revvy's response for the way some do it....this is the way I normally do it as well...all at room temp except a few 6ers in the fridge.

To answer your question, it sounded like you wanted to put the whole lot in the fridge at once, which is why I would say to wait at least a month, to make sure they are carbed up before putting whats left of the yeast to sleep....by chilling them this is what you'll be doing.

Your tripel will not be ready in a month....more like 6 months MINIMUM. Tripels are hig gravity beers, and they will need a long time to bottle gondition and mellow.

My 1.090 og Belgian Strong took three months to even carb up, and 6 months later they only began to not taste like rocket fuel.

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....



More info can be found here....Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. WIth emphasis on the word, patience.

My advice, once you get it bottled, stick it in a closet and forget about it for 6 months. And start a couple low og batches that will be ready in 7-8 weeks.

lol thats a funny diagram.

its going to be very hard for me to wait that long but i guess i will have to do it. i have a kolsh in the primary right now and will be brewing a irish red this weekend so hopefully that will help me hold off.

Revvy said:

It's up to you. Usually once they are carbed, and I begin drinking them, I only put about a six pack or two's worth in the fridge. The rest I leave at room temp and add to the fridge as I drink the others.

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+1 to that. Just leave it in there for 2 days for clarity. I'd age beer like wine, in a dark and cool place (basement). Put a 6-pack in and when there are 2 left, throw another 6 in etc. It's probably incorrect, but from the habitual practice of letting the bottles carbonate at 70, it seems to me that the beer would age better in a slightly cooler environment, that is not quite refrigerator-cold. Get a shelf in the basement and put your brews on it.

DavidSteel said:

+1 to that. Just leave it in there for 2 days for clarity. I'd age beer like wine, in a dark and cool place (basement). Put a 6-pack in and when there are 2 left, throw another 6 in etc. It's probably incorrect, but from the habitual practice of letting the bottles carbonate at 70, it seems to me that the beer would age better in a slightly cooler environment, that is not quite refrigerator-cold. Get a shelf in the basement and put your brews on it.

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You're right...After the beer is carbed (meaning minimum three weeks @ or above 70 and you like where the flavor and carb is at, finding a nice cool space like a cellar is really ideal to store and gracefully age your beer. If you are lucky enough to have a basement or someplace else, then utilize it.

Revvy said:

You're right...After the beer is carbed (meaning minimum three weeks @ or above 70 and you like where the flavor and carb is at, finding a nice cool space like a cellar is really ideal to store and gracefully age your beer. If you are lucky enough to have a basement or someplace else, then utilize it.

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I actually have to store all of my beer in the basement and the temperature is maintained at around 64 degrees. My beer has to bottle condition down there as well as stored. You say 70 or above is best (as I know it is), but I was wondering if you know the effects or disadvantages of letting it bottle condition at cooler temperatures; do you happen to know? I'm sure it's a debated issue, but maybe there is some information out there..

DavidSteel said:

I actually have to store all of my beer in the basement and the temperature is maintained at around 64 degrees. My beer has to bottle condition down there as well as stored. You say 70 or above is best (as I know it is), but I was wondering if you know the effects or disadvantages of letting it bottle condition at cooler temperatures; do you happen to know? I'm sure it's a debated issue, but maybe there is some information out there..

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It just takes longer, that's all. At least 50% of all the "my beer's not carbed" are do to being too cool, obviously the other 50% is simply not waiting at least three weeks, when it is at 70, and it's a normal grav beer. Basically the closer you get to your yeast's dormancy temp, the more sluggish the yeasts are going to be.

I live in a loft, with hight ceilings, big old windows, etc. And it is way too costly to heat this place above 70. I keep the thermostat in the low 60's and use a ceramic heater in the area I spend the most time in, which is the bedroom/computer area.

So this time of year I don't even assume I'm going to have carbonation in a month after bottling. I keep the milkcrates where my bottles are stored in insulated sleeping bags which helps.

But basically the cooler it is the longer it will take.

I think a lot of new brewers stress this out too much. WHen you brew a lot, and start to build a pipeline, you are used to waiting, because you have batches at different stage, fermenting, secondarying, lagering, bottle conditioning and drinking.

For example right now I have a red and an ipa that I am drinking currently. I have a chocolate mole porter that is sort of coming into it's own, that I am entering in a contest the first week of Feb.

I have a few bottles of my year old Belgian Strong Dark, that is still aging, and I pull one out every now and then.

I Have a vienna lager in a secondary lagering for at least another two weeks, if not more.

I am going to probably bottle my Belgian wit this weekend, or I may give it another week to clear, but more than likely I will bottle sooner rather than later since it's coming up on a month in Primary, and I'm on a wit kick right now (in fact I've been buying wits lately rather than drink my red and ipa.)

I also have a 2.5 gallon barelywine that I partigyle brewed on New Years eve which more than likely will get racked to a secondary for a few months, and then bottle conditioned for a few more.

The second runnings, which is sort of a dark amber ale, I will more than likely bottle soon, I'm not sure. I really haven't looked at it and the barelywine since I brewed it.

And I am thinking about brewing something this weekend, maybe another lager.....

As you can I have beers at all stages or fermentation, so if something needs a few extra weeks to carb, or condition, I'm not going to sweat it. I'm about quality beer anyway. If nothings not to my liking/readiness, then I go buy some.

just to let yall know, last night the guy that has been helping me brew came over so we took two of the beers I bottled on sunday and put them in the fridge and drank them. I knew they were not going to be carbonated yet and that they are VERY VERY VERY young but since this is my first batch i just wanted to see what it taste like and that way I can tell how it is improving the longer it stays in the bottle. we were both very surprised at how good they taste, it had a strong aftertaste of alcohol (which i guess is the jet fuel someone was talking about earlier) and the bottles had started to carb up because when i poped the top there was that all so great psssssssh sound.


has anyone else ever done something like this before when they were first starting out just to see?

showtime24 said:

has anyone else ever done something like this before when they were first starting out just to see?

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Sure. I try a sample bottle from my conditioning batches every week to see how they're coming along.

I understand the desire to constantly sample your first beers. But just remember that the more you drink when they are green, the less of them you are going to get to enjoy, come the time they are at their peak.

There's an old homebrewing saying, that your best bottle of a batch of beer, is your last one.

This is going to be a beer that will get insanely better in a few months. So as much as you and your friend are excited, just pace it out. Give it at least another month before you sample it again, or more....

Get some more brewed beers in your pipeline, if you don't have any more, go get another fermenter or two, buckets are cheap, and get some smaller grav beers going. Ones that will be ready in a few weeks, not months.

And that will take you mind off the one you have now.

Trust me, I'm not trying to rain on your parade....But you will want to have a lot more of your tripel to taste when they come online, down the road.

Revvy said:

I understand the desire to constantly sample your first beers. But just remember that the more you drink when they are green, the less of them you are going to get to enjoy, come the time they are at their peak.

There's an old homebrewing saying, that your best bottle of a batch of beer, is your last one.

This is going to be a beer that will get insanely better in a few months. So as much as you and your friend are excited, just pace it out. Give it at least another month before you sample it again, or more....

Get some more brewed beers in your pipeline, if you don't have any more, go get another fermenter or two, buckets are cheap, and get some smaller grav beers going. Ones that will be ready in a few weeks, not months.

And that will take you mind off the one you have now.

Trust me, I'm not trying to rain on your parade....But you will want to have a lot more of your tripel to taste when they come online, down the road.

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oh yea man I understand, i actually already have a kolsch that has been in the primary for 2 weeks and I am brewing an irish red on sunday.

showtime24 said:

just to let yall know, last night the guy that has been helping me brew came over so we took two of the beers I bottled on sunday and put them in the fridge and drank them. I knew they were not going to be carbonated yet and that they are VERY VERY VERY young but since this is my first batch i just wanted to see what it taste like and that way I can tell how it is improving the longer it stays in the bottle. we were both very surprised at how good they taste, it had a strong aftertaste of alcohol (which i guess is the jet fuel someone was talking about earlier) and the bottles had started to carb up because when i poped the top there was that all so great psssssssh sound.


has anyone else ever done something like this before when they were first starting out just to see?

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Of course, what kind of question is that? I'd be surprised if there was 1 person that didn't do this on their first batch

DavidSteel said:

Of course, what kind of question is that? I'd be surprised if there was 1 person that didn't do this on their first batch

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It is very hard to resist, but I'm waiting at least 7 more days (3 weeks total) before popping open my first bottle of my first batch. There is far too much evidence on HBT that shows that I need 3 weeks minimum of bottle carbing, but if I hadn't found HBT, I probably would've opened one after only 7 days.

DavidSteel said:

Of course, what kind of question is that? I'd be surprised if there was 1 person that didn't do this on their first batch

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I have drank more GREEN beer than I care to admit.

DavidSteel said:

Of course, what kind of question is that? I'd be surprised if there was 1 person that didn't do this on their first batch

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I didn't. I had been reading on here for six months before starting and knew not to.

But my second batch I did it and posted the results on a thread.