Dogfish Head Bottling Question

[5gBrewer]

Dogfish Head 60 min IPA (and I'm sure their 90 min IPA as well) say that the beers are bottle conditioned. Now I take that to mean that they were naturally carbonated, etc. yet there is no yeast sediment in their bottles.

Is DFH force carbing their brews, then letting them 'condition' in the bottle?

If this is the case, isn't like every beer that's in a bottle, 'bottle conditioned?'

I really like DFH beers BTW, so I'm not knocking them. I'm just curious as to why they advertise a 'bottle conditioned' beer the way they do.

5gB

 

[freyguy]

I'm not too up on their processes, but I did take their brewery tour. What they do is they cap off their fermenter when it's near completion to lock in the carbonation so they get as much natural carbonation as possible. From there, they run it through this huge filter, then carb it more if need be, then bottle. I guess you could say it's bottle conditioned, but not what us homebrewers are used to.

Their warehouse almost brought a tear to my eye. All those cases of beer they have in there is such a beautiful thing. Picture a big wal-mart completly hollowed out with nothing but cases of DFH beer. Simply Amazing!!!

 

[chillHayze]

"Conditioning" requires yeast. If it is filtered this just ain't possible.
Sounds like a marketing ploy.

As a side note,I had a 120 once and IIRC there was sediment on the bottom. Now that is what an $8, 12oz beer should taste like!

 

[Rhoobarb]

The only 'large micros' in the US that I can think of that really bottle condition their beers is Sierra Nevada and Bell's. As Larry Bell once said, "If God had wanted us to filter our beer, he wouldn't have given us livers."

 

[5gBrewer]

Sierra Nevada has yeast sediment in their bottles? I haven't had one in a long time, but I don't recall any yeast.

On the other hand... The Sweetwater microbrew makes their Hummer, a Belgian Wit beer, and it is totally bottle conditioned; plenty of yeasties on the bottom of the bottle.

5gB