Bottle condition in fridge

[skinnyterror]

Sooooo, I bottled a hefe last Sunday. Just for kicks I popped on of the hefe's today (5 days later) and it's already carbed up! The beer tastes good, but def tastes young. I would like to put the beer in the fridge to stop the carbonation but I'm worried about the conditioning of the beer in a cold environment. Will the beer condition fine in the fridge?

 

[Soup4you2]

Personally a week is still pretty young to be drinking and still needs some time to age, i would leave them alone for at least another 2 weeks or more depending on the OG, then place a few in the fridge for 48 hours then give it a try.

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For bottling i always went by this rule and it's worked out pretty well.

if the OG is less than 1.040 the bottle condition time is about 2 weeks
1.040 - 1.055 = 4 weeks
1.055 - 1.080 = 6-8 weeks.

 

[skinnyterror]

Personally a week is still pretty young to be drinking and still needs some time to age, i would leave them alone for at least another 2 weeks or more depending on the OG, then place a few in the fridge for 48 hours then give it a try.

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For bottling i always went by this rule and it's worked out pretty well.

if the OG is less than 1.040 the bottle condition time is about 2 weeks
1.040 - 1.055 = 4 weeks
1.055 - 1.080 = 6-8 weeks.

I would prefer to do that as well.... I just don't want to leave it out and have an over carbonated beer. The only reason that I want to put it in the fridge is to slow the yeast down.

 

[JimRausch]

I would prefer to do that as well.... I just don't want to leave it out and have an over carbonated beer. The only reason that I want to put it in the fridge is to slow the yeast down.

Assuming you had a stable SG when you bottled it, so that primary fermentation was done, then the (hopefully) small amount of sugar you added at bottling will ferment to completion and give you your carbonation. Bottle bombs and overcarbonation happen when people bottle before their fermentation was complete or they added way too much bottling sugar. If this were mine, I would give it another week or two at room temp, just so it will condition and clean up.
Having sounded like a pompous a**, now I'll admit I almost always try one at one week, and another at 2 weeks. They're almost always better at 3 weeks and most of mine are prime at around 6 weeks post-bottling.

 

[FATC1TY]

I wouldn't advise to continue the practice of stopping the carbonation in the fridge. Use less sugar next time to lower the level instead.

 

[woozy]

Cliche but true: Two wrongs don't make a right.

If you overcarbonated, which you have absolutely no reason to assume, don't try to "fix" it by stalling in a fridge and also stalling the conditioning. If you overcarbonated, which you didn't, just live with it and note one mistake in your notes. If you fridge condition to early you'll have two mistakes you have to note.

 

[BigFloyd]

I'm not sure why you're assuming that your beer will indeed be over-carbed if you give it the normal period of time at room temp for the yeast to consume the priming sugar. It's a process that takes a few weeks, sometimes more.

Did you refrigerate the test sample for 2-3 days before opening? Of course, the temp at which you opened it will influence the perceived level of carbonation.

This video dies a good job of illustrating why one should allow the full carb/conditioning time -

 

[skinnyterror]

I'm not sure why you're assuming that your beer will indeed be over-carbed if you give it the normal period of time at room temp for the yeast to consume the priming sugar. It's a process that takes a few weeks, sometimes more.

Did you refrigerate the test sample for 2-3 days before opening? Of course, the temp at which you opened it will influence the perceived level of carbonation.

This video dies a good job of illustrating why one should allow the full carb/conditioning time - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw

Nice video. It gives me some assurance that waiting would be ok.

The reason I think that it will be over carbed is that when I opened a beer (2 of them actually) at 5 days post bottling, both beers were carbed. I could see the bubbles in the beer and def feel the carbonation on my tongue. I'm assuming that the beer will continue to carb up in the next few weeks resulting in an over carbed beer... The last time I made a hefe it was over carbed and tasted like a champagne/hefe hybrid. No mi gusta. I dialed down the sugar in this batch to correct the problem but it "seems" like it hasn't been corrected. A couple of variables that you guys should consider.
1: I bottled after only 2 weeks in the primary. So it's possible that there were some fermentable sugars that made it into the bottle.
2: I'm conditioning the beer in an uninsulated garage. I live about a mile from the beach, so the outside temp isn't that hot (69-74 at hottest time of day) but inside the garage could be warmer.
Thanks for everyone's insight/replies.

 

[RM-MN]

In my experience the yeast will consume the priming sugars rather quickly which ends the carbonation. This probably only takes a day or 2 but the beer will have large bubbles and the head won't last long. More time lets the CO2 dissolve into the beer and the heading agents form which will give you smaller bubbles, a longer lasting head, and lacing down the glass. It does not lead to overcarbonation if your beer was done fermenting when you bottled.

Beers also need to mature which is a chemical/biological operation that needs the warmer temperatures to happen. Don't refrigerate too soon and you get better beer.

 

[brokebucket]

A couple things:

-first, most, if not all of your carbing is done. Any additional time is just "conditioning".

-Second, while the general rule of thumb is to let your bottles condition for 3-4 weeks, this is not true for wheat beers. Wheats are best young, so I would give them two weeks carb/condition then throw them in the fridge and start drinking.

-Third, while usually any bottles you drink now are bottles you wish you had later (when they really hit their prime), I would also drink some of them young without worry of drinking them too young, as the flavor will fall out later on. Because it's a wheat.

 

[brokebucket]

And just to be clear, I really doubt you over-carbed your beer....based on what you have posted thus far anyways.

 

[unionrdr]

Conditioning isn't carbonating. conditioning mainly refers to the melding of hop & malt flavors into their final form. Carbonation alters these flavors & aromas By lifting them up,&/or making them crisper or more prominent.Ime,this usually takes a week or two longer,on average,than carbonation. And wheat beers usually have higher carbonation anyway. How many volumes of co2 did you factor in for the amount of priming sugar used?

 

[Revvy]

I would prefer to do that as well.... I just don't want to leave it out and have an over carbonated beer. The only reason that I want to put it in the fridge is to slow the yeast down.

You can't have overcabonated beer unless 1) you have an infection, 2) you put too much sugar in to begin with 3) You bottled too early and there are unfermentable sugars left in there.

Carbonation is not a spectrum, nor is it something that continues. You add the correct amount of sugar for the volume of co2 you want it to produce, achieve the level of carbonation you are looking for. The yeast then eats it (and only it, because that's all that should be in there after fermentation is complete) and produces the co2 which carbonates your beer, and when all that sugar is consumed, there is nothing left for it to eat, and it goes dormant.