Conditioning in bottle more effective than Primary?

[corpsman619]

What are your guys thoughts on letting your beer go in the primary only long enough to completely ferment then go straight to bottle to condition?

Do you think that beer conditions faster or slower in a bottle rather than a primary? Do you think that sitting on yeast cake would help clear things up faster than just the suspended yeast if you bottle right away?

Thanks guys

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

I tend to stay on the cake myself, and I think an argument can be made for doing so. A lot of yeasts will still clean up after themselves, so why reduce the herd?

 

[pjj2ba]

Bulk conditioning is typically a good thing. This can be done in primary, or secondary. The yeast cake is not needed for the conditioning. It is the yeast in suspension that are cleaning up fermentation by products. The yeast in the cake have gone dormant. The cake does add some flavors though that many like, and others do not, and this can be style dependent

 

[corpsman619]

So it's better because there is more yeast in suspension while the beer is primary? I figured the same amount of suspended yeast would be in the bottle, I mean for the amount. The beer to yeast ratio would remain the same?

 

[pjj2ba]

This is what Palmer says

If the beer is bottled early, i.e. 1 week old, then that small amount of yeast in the bottle has to do the double task of conditioning the priming byproducts as well as those from the main ferment. You could very well end up with an off-flavored batch.

Do not be confused, I am not saying that bottle conditioning is bad, it is different. Studies have shown that priming and bottle conditioning is a very unique form of fermentation due to the oxygen present in the head space of the bottle.

Seems to make sense to me. Let the yeast finish their clean up, and then bottle. Although if you keg and force carb this is not an issue - you are always bulk conditioning

 

[shuckit]

I think it depends. Bottle conditioning can change the flavor of the beer. I've had a lager where I was out of town for the diacetyl rest and it was a butter bomb. Bottled it and the yeast came alive, ate the diacetyl and carb the beer.