keg conditioning

jradical503 · Feb 28, 2009

I have a question about keg conditioning, i usually leave beer in the fermenter for over a week or more. afterwards after racking do i have to leave the keg at fermenting temperature or can i cool it down and force carbonate it while it conditions it. Also does conditioning in general need to be done at fermenting temperatures?

bsay · Feb 28, 2009

Make sure fermentation is complete before transferring to the keg. Once in the keg, you can chill it and force carbonate or prime with sugar and leave the keg at room temp. Beer will age just fine when it is chilled, so you don't need to leave it at room temp for aging.

BierMuncher · Feb 28, 2009

A lot depends on the recipe and beer style.

Once you chill a batch of beer, you suspend any conditioning activity. Yeast falls out.

It's a pretty good idea to let beers age at room temperature for more than just a week. Again, depends on the style, the gravity and the IBU's.

ApolloSpeed · Mar 1, 2009

BierMuncher said:
A lot depends on the recipe and beer style.

Once you chill a batch of beer, you suspend any conditioning activity. Yeast falls out.
.

wait a minute.....are you saying it clears up if you chill it right after racking??

BierMuncher · Mar 1, 2009

ApolloSpeed said:
wait a minute.....are you saying it clears up if you chill it right after racking??

No. Yeast falling out of suspension and clearing aren't entirely connected. Protein, or chill haze (unrelated to yeast) contributes to cloudy beer. Chill haze will go away after some time of being chilled but again...a lot depends on the grist used in the recipe, the gravity, the hot and cold break effectiveness and whether or not the recipe was dry hopped.

crouchingwombat · Mar 3, 2009

BierMuncher said:
No. Yeast falling out of suspension and clearing aren't entirely connected. Protein, or chill haze (unrelated to yeast) contributes to cloudy beer. Chill haze will go away after some time of being chilled but again...a lot depends on the grist used in the recipe, the gravity, the hot and cold break effectiveness and whether or not the recipe was dry hopped.

Could you please explain chill haze. I would like to know what causes it. Actually could you explain everything in that last sentence? I just brewed a pale ale and it has not cleared up at all, fermented 12 days and kegged now for a week. I used irish moss near the end of the boil and thought that was suppose to help with clarity.
Thanks