Finish carbonation VS cold condition?

[byronyasgur]

I have a beer I made for a party. It took a bit longer to carbonate than I expected. It's mostly done now and I had a bottle last night and it was fine, just slightly lower than expected carbonation ... but I really feel it will benefit from spending some time in the fridge to cold condition. Ideally I'd let it carbonate for another week and then cold condition for a week - but of course I only have a single week till the party. Which would be better - the extra carbonation or the cold conditioning. It's a 15minute extract cascade ale - or maybe I should go half and half. I know it's a how long is a piece of string type question and it doesn't really matter all that much anyway but does anyone have any thoughts or experiences?

 

[jalc6927]

You should carb at room temp

 

[byronyasgur]

You should carb at room temp

yes I know - I''d carb at around 20-24C and cold condition at around 0-4C

 

[JimRausch]

Chilling it for 48 hours should be adequate, so if you feel it needs more carbonation, then keep it warm until +/- 48 hours before your party.

 

[Parrothead01]

I agree with Jim. Keep carbonating for as close to two weeks as possible.

 

[RM-MN]

Carbonation or heading? Most beers carbonate within a couple days at room temp in the bottles. It takes longer for heading compounds to form. Both happen much faster warm than cold and too cold can stop both. 24 to 48 hours of cold should do plenty for your beer.

 

[byronyasgur]

Thanks for help guys. Lots of interesting stuff there but actually I do know how to carbonate - what I'm referring to is cold conditioning ( after carbonation ) ... Palmer here in how to brew is referring to it in terms of secondary fermentation but it can also be performed after carbonation AFAIK - well I've done it myself a good few times and I believe I notice the effects

Towards the end of secondary fermentation, the suspended yeast flocculates (settles out) and the beer clears. High molecular weight proteins also settle out during this stage. Tannin/phenol compounds will bind with the proteins and also settle out, greatly smoothing the taste of the beer. This process can be helped by chilling the beer, very similar to the lagering process. In the case of ales, this process is referred to as Cold Conditioning, and is a popular practice at most brewpubs and microbreweries. Cold conditioning for a week clears the beer with or without the use of finings.

so I'm wondering whether it would be best have carbonation 100% completed but no cold conditioning VERSUS carbonation say 85% done and cold condition 85% done — or something like that. I do like the way the cold conditioning smoothes out the beer you see

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for help guys. Lots of interesting stuff there but actually I do know how to carbonate - what I'm referring to is cold conditioning ( after carbonation ) ... Palmer here in how to brew is referring to it in terms of secondary fermentation but it can also be performed after carbonation AFAIK - well I've done it myself a good few times and I believe I notice the effects



so I'm wondering whether it would be best have carbonation 100% completed but no cold conditioning VERSUS carbonation say 85% done and cold condition 85% done — or something like that. I do like the way the cold conditioning smoothes out the beer you see

I don't believe it is the cold conditioning that smoothes out the beer but time. Mine get smooth too....at room temperature. Cold conditioning will settle out suspended yeast faster which you may be seeing but time will do it too.

 

[byronyasgur]

Cold conditioning will settle out suspended yeast faster which you may be seeing but time will do it too.

I know - cold does nothing except speed up the process - If I wasn't in a hurry I'd just let it sit there for a month

I don't believe it is the cold conditioning that smoothes out the beer but time. Mine get smooth too....at room temperature.

I don't have a blind test done or anything obviously but I actually first noticed this effect myself and then when I researched it I discovered that it's widely practised in commercial breweries ( presumably just to speed things up ) ... anyway my point being that I don't think I'm just imagining it ... but of course it's anyone's guess until someone does a proper test