Bottle condition time for NEIPA

[jayjay]

Hi
I have just finished bottling my first batch of NEIPA and are wondering what the proper bottle conditioning time is (20 degrees celcius), as i have heard that you should refrigerate the beers as soon as you try one that tastes fresh. Can anybody give me a clue to when this is? (days/weeks)
Cheers

 

[thehaze]

If everything was done right, you should have carbonation at 4-5 days in the bottle. Try one there after you've chilled it down for 2-3 hours. If it's OK, put them in the fridge. They will oxidise very, very quickly.

 

[jayjay]

Very good i will try this approach
Thanks for the help

If everything was done right, you should have carbonation at 4-5 days in the bottle. Try one there after you've chilled it down for 2-3 hours. If it's OK, put them in the fridge. They will oxidise very, very quickly.

 

[Stormcrow]

If everything was done right, you should have carbonation at 4-5 days in the bottle. Try one there after you've chilled it down for 2-3 hours. If it's OK, put them in the fridge. They will oxidise very, very quickly.

I just bottled a hop forward blonde ale that actually has a little more hop character than I intended. (Not unpleasant by any means.) Is this a type of beer I might "hurry" on with some of the same concerns as an ipa? Or is quick degradation only a concern with "really hoppy" beers?

 

[thehaze]

It depends how much oxygen and how often did you introduce it, into your beer. Oxygen goes in when dry hopping or just opening fermenter to either check gravity, or add different stuff to it. There are of course ways to minimise or even prevent oxidation ( to some degree ? ), but usually you need to perform closed transfers and make use of CO2 purging. There are lots of well documented and really helpful threads on this forum regarding oxidation and how to best prevent it. I don't have issues with bottling West Coast IPAs and any non-dry hopped, but medium-heavy kettle hopped American Pale Ales, Saisons, Belgian/English Bitters/Pale Ales, Ambers, Reds, Sours, etc. But oxidation will eventually settle in for me as well, it just takes more time. By that time, these particular beers would've already been turned to piii.

Cheers!

 

[Clyde McCoy]

Closed transfer is definitely preferable for beers with large dry hop additions, but if you don't have that equipment -

Use an autosiphon to directly transfer from FV to bottles

Seal all tubing on the autosiphon with clamps on both sides to minimize extra oxygen pickup

Add ~2.2 - 2.5 grams dextrose to each bottle before transferring depending on desired carbonation level (carbonation drops are too unpredictable in my experience)

Practice with your autosiphon using water/starsan before attempting to transfer beer. Can't stress this enough. A single smooth motion should be sufficient to start the siphon. You shouldn't need to repeatedly pump the beer.

Very first sample is going to be the most oxygenated, so use it for a hydrometer reading.

Fill bottles to very top before removing wand and cap immediately.

Carbonate 4-6 days then in the fridge as soon as they are ready.

Before I switched to closed transfer and counter pressure bottle filler, this approach worked fairly well, even for heavily dry hopped beers.

 

[Stormcrow]

Carbonate 4-6 days then in the fridge as soon as they are ready.

Thanks to both you guys, but are you saying these beers a go to start drinking after just a few days in the bottle, or they should finish aging in the fridge? The reason I ask is; most of the advice I see on the forum is for folks (especially new brewers) "to be patient, most people start drinking their beer too early, it is not really mature until two, three, four weeks in the bottle, etc." The discussion seems different when people talk about hoppy beers though. It seems like people are encouraged to start drinking these as soon as possible so as not to lose hop character. Is there really two different sets of rules, or am I misunderstanding that? (FWIW, I always try a bottle one week in, and if I like it, we're good to go.")

 

[Andrew7447]

Yea carb 4 to 6 days and probably drink very soon after that. Some would say you can't even properly make neipa/ipa bottling. I'm mostly in that boat now after comparing many zero 02 exposed glasses to bottle conditioned ones of the same batch. Its not really a if they will oxidize, your just fighting the when.
I won't get into the new tips people give about waiting weeks on weeks for fermenting and bottling for most beers for "best results". I mostly disagree with that as well.

 

[Clyde McCoy]

Thanks to both you guys, but are you saying these beers a go to start drinking after just a few days in the bottle, or they should finish aging in the fridge? The reason I ask is; most of the advice I see on the forum is for folks (especially new brewers) "to be patient, most people start drinking their beer too early, it is not really mature until two, three, four weeks in the bottle, etc." The discussion seems different when people talk about hoppy beers though. It seems like people are encouraged to start drinking these as soon as possible so as not to lose hop character. Is there really two different sets of rules, or am I misunderstanding that? (FWIW, I always try a bottle one week in, and if I like it, we're good to go.")

It's difficult to predict how green a beer will be. The main point here is that the hops are degrading at warmer temperatures, so as soon as re-fermentation is sufficient, you want to keep everything cold. It can be a few weeks after that when I think the beer tastes it's best.

 

[Stormcrow]

Yea carb 4 to 6 days and probably drink very soon after that. Some would say you can't even properly make neipa/ipa bottling. I'm mostly in that boat now after comparing many zero 02 exposed glasses to bottle conditioned ones of the same batch. Its not really a if they will oxidize, your just fighting the when.
I won't get into the new tips people give about waiting weeks on weeks for fermenting and bottling for most beers for "best results". I mostly disagree with that as well.

Yea carb 4 to 6 days and probably drink very soon after that. Some would say you can't even properly make neipa/ipa bottling. I'm mostly in that boat now after comparing many zero 02 exposed glasses to bottle conditioned ones of the same batch. Its not really a if they will oxidize, your just fighting the when.
I won't get into the new tips people give about waiting weeks on weeks for fermenting and bottling for most beers for "best results". I mostly disagree with that as well.

Just an update here. I tried my "hoppy blonde" today, six days in the bottle (after two weeks in primary). It was wonderful. I guess it may get better with a little more time, but it honestly tastes just like I was shooting for right now. I shared it with a guy I know who likes IPAs, and he really enjoyed it too. The head was steady as well this early. The wheat in the grain bill might be the big contributor there. I don't know if this anecdote helps much with the original question about NEIPA, but with this beer, fresh is good. Just FWIW. Thanks again folks.

 

[Aki]

Bottle conditioning 9,4% abv neipa? I screwed up with my 2nd brew ’cause I didn’t know it’s okay to add more water to boil. ended up being a huge neipa and hop burn is significant after fermentation. I have taken gravity readings twice so I know it’s ready to bottle ”. However, now this is a neipa so:

- it should be drunk soon because of oxidation issues
- it cannot be drunk soon because of hop burn

A dilemma. Should I just ditch it down the drain or bottle it and see how it tastes like after a month?

 

[Stormcrow]

I'd bottle it. Perhaps that hop burn will mellow out quicker than you think. If you've never fined with gelatin, this might be a good brew to try it with. If there's any tiny hop particles still floating around, it might pull them down and help your cause. Whenever I drink a hydrometer sample that has hop particles floating in it, it always burns more than the bottled beer does later.