Belgian cold conditioning

[ElbowGrease]

What is the reason behind long cold crash/condition schedules of Belgian beers? For example, St.Bernardus Abt 12 will condition 6 to 8 weeks, and Westmalle Tripel 4-5 weeks. Yeast will flocculate earlier than that, so I guess there is some chemical process involved in maturing on low temperatures.

 

[chawn]

I'm not sure about the belgians, but I'm pretty sure the reason that Coors Light doesn't allow their lager to go above 32° is to prevent the diluted (with Rocky Mountain spring water) horse urine to develop an ammonia-like odor.

 

[secondbase]

I think it has a lot to do with tradition. Most breweries started up in that region after the emergence of the lager, and so they followed lager practices because that's what they were familiar with brewing. Cold conditioning will drop even more yeast out of suspension and reduce the amount of sediment in the bottle to make it ready for final packaging. I can't remember if they go over this specific topic in BLAM. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in.

 

[toddegg]

With regard to clearing beer:

1) yeast (biologic entity): They are a funny organism. Here's a statement that describes that the inconsistencies they can involve:
https://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_clarification.cfm

2) non-biologic causes (protein haze, other particles, etc): As far as the other causes of cloudy or hazy beer (protein haze, polyphenols) - they are probably not affected by cold crashing.

Eliminating the biologic or yeast component is addressed with cold crashing. If you do not find that your beer is acceptably clear at that point, the best you can do as a home brewer is to add a fining agent (gelatin, or a number of marketed products)

I usually find that cold crashing and eliminating the yeast component is adequate, but I do ad gelatin to beers to further clarify at times.

 

[toddegg]

One other thing. The Belgian beers have been around longer than the Lager at many Belgian breweries to which I have been, so there is no tradition related to the process. There is the common knowledge that yeast drops when it gets cold, however, and it does get cold in Belgium.

 

[serum]

I definitely see an improvement in the taste of my Belgian style beers over the period they condition so it's probably not just to let the sediment fall out.

One thing I read recently is that the tax regime in Belgium allows for this because tax is levied at the poit of sale rather than when it is produced so they have the option of conditioning for longer. I'm not sure how it works in the US but in the UK conditioning for a long time certainly isn't as financially viable.

 

[ElbowGrease]

Eliminating the biologic or yeast component is addressed with cold crashing. If you do not find that your beer is acceptably clear at that point, the best you can do as a home brewer is to add a fining agent (gelatin, or a number of marketed products)

I don't have issue with clarity of my beer, just wonder what is the "science" behind Belgian style long crash (up to 8 weeks) Yeast will floccuate in one to two weeks, and than beer stays for another 6 weeks chilling around

Also some breweries choose near freezing temp, and other go around 10C/50F

 

[trentm]

I don't have issue with clarity of my beer, just wonder what is the "science" behind Belgian style long crash (up to 8 weeks) Yeast will floccuate in one to two weeks, and than beer stays for another 6 weeks chilling around

Also some breweries choose near freezing temp, and other go around 10C/50F

This is a great question. I also would like to know more about the science behind this phenomenon regarding Belgian Beers. I am a long time brewer of award winning Belgian Strong Pales. Certainly these styles require (for me) 4 months conditioning and peak at between 6 and 12 months. Although I can't help with the science, here are some things I have observed that may help shed light. Most Belgian yeast strains are slow to flocculate and seem to remain active in beer for around 6 months as evidenced by gradual increase in carbonation over that period. In addition, suspended yeast can be observed (although few) microscopically for that period in the beer. I have often wondered if some of the Belgian yeast strains are evolutionarily closer to wild type yeast than their more sophisticated Saccharomyces relatives we use in many American styles of beer. Is what we observe with conditioning Belgians similar to how Brettanomyces fermented beers develop over time? Many Belgian yeast strains can operate at low temperatures. I found this out when, concerned about oxygen pick up during cold crash, I decided to slowly (1 - 2 degrees F per day) bring a secondary down to 40F. Fermentation was still apparent at 40F and finished 1.002 below the gravity at the beginning of the cool down. Although this is a painstaking way to condition beer, it has produced some of my best batches. That said, I have also produced great beer by bottling soon after fermentation is, for all practical purposes, complete and conditioning in the bottle with good success. But regardless of the method, extended conditioning (in my experience) is a must for world class Belgian Strong Pales.

 

[shtoive87]

I remember from the brew strong episode on lagering that some phenols will slowly fall out of solution. This causes the flavors to meld together more nicely. Most beers (except hoppy ones) will benefit from cold conditioning but Belgians more so because of the amount of phenols produced by the yeast.