Tips for handling beers that need age

[user 141939]

Anyone have tips for this sort of thing? I am able to transfer from primary to secondary and from secondary to bottling bucket with CO2. But i still bottle from a traditional bottling bucket. I could try rigging something up where I bottle with CO2, but I wonder if this is as important or if the O2 introduced at bottling would just get consumed during bottle conditioning.

Also, i've read proteins in beer cause stability issues. Would it be better to brighten the beer at low temps for a month or so until chill haze is gone and then bottle with fresh yeast?

I'm talking about those big beers like barleywines and quads and such.

 

[ColoHox]

To get the best results from aging, you need to do anything you can to avoid oxygen pickup.

However, some of the flavors in aged, strong beer (like barleywines and quads) is from oxidation; which in most cases of bottling, is unavoidable. Too much oxygen though, and the beers turns into cardboard.

I always cold crash my beers, and especially before aging. This drops the haze-forming protein complexes out, and much of the yeast. It won't take a month to clear your beer, probably just a week or so. A fresh pitch of yeast plus sugar is a good approach (as opposed to just sugar). There is likely enough yeast in suspension, even after a cold crash, to carbonate, but adding additional healthy yeast makes the process more reliable.

Good luck.

 

[user 141939]

I say a month just from my experience with bottled beer. Usually it takes a few weeks in the fridge before the chill haze is completely gone.

So do you bottle normally with a bottling bucket and a spigot? Do you worry about oxygen being pulled in when cold crashing?

What about my thought that small amounts of O2 will be consumed during bottle conditioning? Since currently I am keeping O2 away except during bottling (or potentially cold crashing)

 

[user 141939]

I thought this would be a good topic. No other input? I guess I'll ask somewhere else.

 

[ColoHox]

This is a good topic.

Some reports say that the yeast will only use about 30% of the oxygen from the headspace of bottled beer. The rest contributes to age-associated flavors or staling.

I use a Blichmann beer gun when I bottle. I can purge the bottle and headspace with CO2 with that setup.

You should worry about O2 being pulled in. That "suck back" can also pull in santizer if using an airlock or blow-off. I provide CO2 gas to my fermenter when I cold crash for this reason, although many people do not.

 

[user 141939]

Thanks for the info on the yeast. So I should be concerned about that when bottling.

Perhaps a beer gun is in my future. So you keg first before using that right?

Also, for the cold crashing, is it just a matter of hooking up CO2 through tubing connected to a carboy cap and keeping the gas on a trickle for a day or so?

 

[ChelisHubby]

You will normally cold crash after the beer is done fermenting and there should be a layer of co2 above the beer that the yeast made. If you are kegging then you use regulators to control the amount of co2 you need. Yes you need to keg first before you use a beer gun but that is something I know next to nothing about.

 

[ColoHox]

Thanks for the info on the yeast. So I should be concerned about that when bottling.

Perhaps a beer gun is in my future. So you keg first before using that right?

Also, for the cold crashing, is it just a matter of hooking up CO2 through tubing connected to a carboy cap and keeping the gas on a trickle for a day or so?

Yes, keg first before beergun. And yes, that's exactly it. I use a 1-2psi line into my fermenting chamber and retrofitted a carboy cap to accept the gas line.

You will normally cold crash after the beer is done fermenting and there should be a layer of co2 above the beer that the yeast made. If you are kegging then you use regulators to control the amount of co2 you need. Yes you need to keg first before you use a beer gun but that is something I know next to nothing about.

The CO2 doesn't really lay on the beer like a blanket, especially if pressure or temperature are changing. The incoming air mixes with the CO2 in the carboy and exposes the beer to O2.