Patience, part II

posted by Jon


In the last few days I've been doing some research on bottle conditioning. I've found a few interesting things. 

First, a little background. Let's discuss the difference between force carbonation and bottle conditioning. When you go to a pub and order a beer, it is usually force carbonated. The keg contains the un-carbonated beer and when the beer is pushed out by carbon dioxide (or sometimes nitrogen) the gas is added to the beer, resulting in carbonation. Sometimes a pub will have a cask-conditioned beer. This is when a brewery puts the beer in a wooden cask and adds a bit of yeast to the barrel. The yeast ferments a bit of the sugar left in the beer, converting it to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Bottle-conditioning is basically the same as cask-conditioning, just on a smaller scale. When we bottle a beer, there is still active yeast in it. We add a small amount of priming sugar (usually corn sugar or malt extract) which is converted by the yeast into carbon dioxide and alcohol.


Once we bottle a beer, there is a period of time that you want to let the beer sit to fully condition. If you open a bottle-conditioned beer to early, the yeast hasn't been given enough time to do its work. The beer will be a little sweeter and not have much carbonation. Here is something that I found about the minimum length of time you should let a beer condition in the bottle:


Minimum bottle conditioning:
4 weeks - less than 1.060 OG
6 weeks - less than 1.080
8 weeks - 1.080+



The O.G. readings of our beers so far:
Sinister: 1.072
Gourdon: 1.070
Intruder: 1.081
Fekete Mokus: 1.050
Bastogne: 1.079


The last few beers you've gotten have been given to you at about 2-3 weeks after bottling. I think I will start going by the aforementioned rule of thumb with minimum times. This means it might be a bit later by the time you get your beers. It also means they will be a better quality product. Oh, and it means you will be getting your December beer before your November beer.


One final thought: Notice the word "minimum". If you remember the last post about patience where I talk about some beers benefiting from a longer conditioning time. While the Intruder may be "ready" to drink after 8 weeks, the flavors will continue to develop over the next few months. When I give you your beers, they will be "ready" to drink. They probably won't taste as good as if you let them sit longer. This past week Ryan and I bottled the Von Bora. The Von Bora will be "ready" in 8 weeks or so. I'm going to let mine sit at least 6 months before I crack my first one and then wait another month or two for each subsequent one.