Warm vs cold conditioning.

[Pietrach]

Hi
To date I always warm conditioned my ales. I ferment for say 10-14 days in primary vessel in around 20deg and then move to bottles (+priming sugar) where they stay for another minimum 4-6 weeks in the same temperature. However, I know other people and breweries cold condition beers straight after primary fermentation. What benefit does it give in terms of flavour? I was always happy with my beers, amount of esters etc. I keep thinking that if I put the beer in cold conditioning straight after the primary fermentation is finished (say 2-4 days) then I will end up with cleaner beer (sediment will drop out more quickly) and crisper beer (less esters). Is this correct?

Do you know any commercial breweries that don't do cold conditioning?

Thanks
Pawel

 

[myndflyte]

Cold conditioning won't really help you. You need the yeast to stay active to actually carbonate your beer. Commercial breweries typically filter out the yeast and force carbonate so they can cold condition. Your next batch you could bottle + prime, and then keep 2 to 3 weeks at warm temps (to allow for carbonation) and then put some in the fridge and see if they eventually condition differently. Cold conditioning will take much longer though.

 

[Pietrach]

Good advice. Initially I was thinking about:Thank you.
I was thinking about:
7 days in primary, 7 days in warm secondary to make sure fermentation is complete and develop esters, then 7 days in cold (4-8 deg) to drop sediment, then bottle and keep warm to carbonate.

 

[unionrdr]

Well, since yeast don't have the rigid schedule we do, they're done when they're done. Each fermentation is different in some way with regard to timing & all that is influenced by it. When the beer reaches a stable FG, I give it 3-7 days more to clean up any by-products of fermentation & settle out clear or slightly misty before dry hopping or bottling. No secondary needed. Room temp for the bottles to carbonate & condition for 3-4 weeks on average. Then 5-7 days fridge time to carbonate & allow any chill haze to develop & settle out.

 

[myndflyte]

Good advice. Initially I was thinking about:Thank you.
I was thinking about:
7 days in primary, 7 days in warm secondary to make sure fermentation is complete and develop esters, then 7 days in cold (4-8 deg) to drop sediment, then bottle and keep warm to carbonate.

Oh well this is a little different that what I thought you were initially talking about. I thought you wanted to condition cold in the bottle. What you are describing is cold crashing and lots of people do it to help clear their beer. Although since the yeast aren't really doing anything at that time, I'd say cold crash the beer for 2 or 3 days. Most of the sediment will be dropped out by then and waiting another 4 or 5 days is probably just wasting time.