luckybeagle
Making sales and brewing ales.
I brew too much for my own good and, as a result, I'm often racking carboys to kegs before the beer is all that mature--so that I can free up the carboy and move on to the next batch.
Most of my beers are between 4.5 - 7.5%, though I do brew the occasional strong ale/Belgian that I'm learning to become more patient with. The quality improvement is perceptible.
To satisfy my desire to brew, here's what I'm thinking of doing with my 4x carboys and 4 tap kegerator.
1. Brew on Monday, pitch the yeast and keep in the fermentation chamber until the following Monday. 95% of the beers I brew reach FG within 7 days.
2. Once that carboy comes out of the chamber, bring it into the house and let it sit at ambient temperature for 2 more weeks. If it's not totally fermented out by the time I bring it inside, the time and room temp should finish it out for most styles without risking undesirable fusel/ester development I'd think.
3. Relocate carboy to the garage to help settle out the yeast for 1 more week, but do the real cold crashing and fining in the keg.
4. Hook up the gas and let the keg sit a week under serving pressure before tapping (I've found this gets me 90% of the way there with carbonation on most beers)
In a nutshell, every beer would go from grain to glass in about 5 weeks unless I keg and ignore it for a while.
I guess my big question is: Can a beer (I almost exclusively brew ales, with the exception of the occasional room temp pressure fermented Lager) sit and condition at a temperature OUTSIDE of fermentation temps and have a positive, bulk conditioning effect? For example, I have a Saison sitting at 82F and is at FG. Will bringing it inside to free up the fermentation chamber still be effective in helping it condition and the flavors to meld despite a 12F drop in ambient?
I know not every beer will respond to being whipped into this regimen, but it seems like many would, and would help me manage my pipeline a little more effectively. Again, big or special beers (Barleywines, BDSA, big Imperials--stuff I brew only a few times a year) would be allowed much more time.
Thoughts??
Most of my beers are between 4.5 - 7.5%, though I do brew the occasional strong ale/Belgian that I'm learning to become more patient with. The quality improvement is perceptible.
To satisfy my desire to brew, here's what I'm thinking of doing with my 4x carboys and 4 tap kegerator.
1. Brew on Monday, pitch the yeast and keep in the fermentation chamber until the following Monday. 95% of the beers I brew reach FG within 7 days.
2. Once that carboy comes out of the chamber, bring it into the house and let it sit at ambient temperature for 2 more weeks. If it's not totally fermented out by the time I bring it inside, the time and room temp should finish it out for most styles without risking undesirable fusel/ester development I'd think.
3. Relocate carboy to the garage to help settle out the yeast for 1 more week, but do the real cold crashing and fining in the keg.
4. Hook up the gas and let the keg sit a week under serving pressure before tapping (I've found this gets me 90% of the way there with carbonation on most beers)
In a nutshell, every beer would go from grain to glass in about 5 weeks unless I keg and ignore it for a while.
I guess my big question is: Can a beer (I almost exclusively brew ales, with the exception of the occasional room temp pressure fermented Lager) sit and condition at a temperature OUTSIDE of fermentation temps and have a positive, bulk conditioning effect? For example, I have a Saison sitting at 82F and is at FG. Will bringing it inside to free up the fermentation chamber still be effective in helping it condition and the flavors to meld despite a 12F drop in ambient?
I know not every beer will respond to being whipped into this regimen, but it seems like many would, and would help me manage my pipeline a little more effectively. Again, big or special beers (Barleywines, BDSA, big Imperials--stuff I brew only a few times a year) would be allowed much more time.
Thoughts??
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