woozy
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- Mar 8, 2013
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With all the talk of how long to bottle and can you condition to long, I have to confess to always having been confused about one thing. Once a beer has aged hasn't it become ... well, a bottle of beer? I mean, before I started brewing if I bought a case of commercial beer I'd put it in the cupboard until I was ready to put it in the fridge. It never occurred to me that it'd be continuing to condition, over conditioning, and going bad. I most have some beers that are *years* old.
So whenever I heard talk "I opened this beer after six days and it's lousy"/"Let it condition for a couple weeks, idiot" I always figure "Um, let it condition till it's done. Then just let it be a beer that's stored in the closet until you are ready to drink it; what's the big issue".
Now people talk of final conditioning in the fridge for a few days. I figured this was for clearing appearances. I've always just treated this as the "i'm putting it in the fridge so I'll drink it in a day or two" phase. My thinking being: Maybe my beers should condition for a week more. Or maybe they're done. Well, I'll just put the ones I want to drink in the fridge. The remaining beers will sit here and continue to age if they need it, or will sit on the shelf if they are done aging.
So as a final step in processing beer, does fridge conditioning somehow *stop* the process. Does fridge conditioning somehow "homogenize" (metaphorically, not literally) the beer? Will fridging the beer stop conditioning and aging so the if you remove them from the fridge and put them back on the shelf they will sit with an indefinite shelf live? Without fridging would they simply age, overcondition and go bad?
I don't see how that could be as all fridging will do is chill them. Once they warm up again whatever yeasties are still there will wake up and they will just start doing whatever it was we put them in the fridge to stop.
So... what's the deal? Does beer actually go bad if you over bottle condition? Does fridge conditioning stop this? Are my never seen that south side of 60 homebrews going on twelve weeks old in danger? If fridging them doesn't stop aging should I toss out the heinekin I have in my cupboard because I didn't keep it refridgerated all this time? Or was I right all along; both the heinekin in my cupboard and the 12 week old homebrews in my closet are "just a bunch of beer I have on hand"?
So whenever I heard talk "I opened this beer after six days and it's lousy"/"Let it condition for a couple weeks, idiot" I always figure "Um, let it condition till it's done. Then just let it be a beer that's stored in the closet until you are ready to drink it; what's the big issue".
Now people talk of final conditioning in the fridge for a few days. I figured this was for clearing appearances. I've always just treated this as the "i'm putting it in the fridge so I'll drink it in a day or two" phase. My thinking being: Maybe my beers should condition for a week more. Or maybe they're done. Well, I'll just put the ones I want to drink in the fridge. The remaining beers will sit here and continue to age if they need it, or will sit on the shelf if they are done aging.
So as a final step in processing beer, does fridge conditioning somehow *stop* the process. Does fridge conditioning somehow "homogenize" (metaphorically, not literally) the beer? Will fridging the beer stop conditioning and aging so the if you remove them from the fridge and put them back on the shelf they will sit with an indefinite shelf live? Without fridging would they simply age, overcondition and go bad?
I don't see how that could be as all fridging will do is chill them. Once they warm up again whatever yeasties are still there will wake up and they will just start doing whatever it was we put them in the fridge to stop.
So... what's the deal? Does beer actually go bad if you over bottle condition? Does fridge conditioning stop this? Are my never seen that south side of 60 homebrews going on twelve weeks old in danger? If fridging them doesn't stop aging should I toss out the heinekin I have in my cupboard because I didn't keep it refridgerated all this time? Or was I right all along; both the heinekin in my cupboard and the 12 week old homebrews in my closet are "just a bunch of beer I have on hand"?