Will Kegging / Cold conditioning cure my 'Bottom' Fermentation?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Neilson on December 18, 2008 at 3:28pm

The sore stomach in the morning in my experience serving real ale to these people is consumption not the beer. The funniest case of this was a drunken customer in our pub the night before ringing us up and complaining that the meal he had in there that night had given him an upset stomach and food poisoning, but in fact he never ate all night and defintly not our bar as the kitchen was closed that night. We told him it was the 20 odd pints he consummed that afternoon evening!!

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Permalink Reply by Nick on December 18, 2008 at 3:32pm

I always cold condition to settle out the yeast amongst other things. I then need to add fresh yeast to the bottles though if I'm bottling. Different yeast has different floculation properties (stickiness). Ales generally form a better sediment so it usually stays put in the bottle.

If you have piles of yeast in your bottles then you probably bottling a bit too soon. Cold conditioning in the bottle won't do much - the yeast is already in there and its tendency to go back into suspension depends on the strain of yeast.

If you have a fridge then cold conditioning before bottling will help. I personally transfer into a clean tank so the beer is seperated from the spent yeast and autolysis is hopefully avoided. If you cold condition for any length of time then you may need fresh yeast at bottling.

This is because the amount of yeast still in suspension is very small and has been naturally selected via your process to stay in suspension. New yeast will carbonate the beer and bind to the old yeast, leaving your bottles beer stable.

I hope this helps :-)

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Permalink Reply by Reviled on December 18, 2008 at 3:33pm

If you cold condition it the yeast should drop and pack quite tightly, it will still get unsettled when you pick up the bottle, but not as much as if it was sitting warm... But yeast is a good source of Protein and B Vitamins :o) haha

I dont see a problem myself, I allways feel great after drinking home brew and feel absolutely terrible whenever I drink anything commercial...

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Permalink Reply by James P on December 18, 2008 at 3:49pm

The head is never an issue after a night on HB, and the "bottom fermentation" depends on the age of my brews, the older the better.

However as I generally do lagers I have "cold conditioned" for up to six weeks. Even after six weeks, it carbs up nicely without adding more yeast, just takes a little longer in the bottle.

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Permalink Reply by studio1 on December 18, 2008 at 3:52pm

cool, how long do you find your carbing takes after that long? If you have your fermenter in a fridge, do you move it for bottling or syphon to a new bucket to avoid unsettling the yeast?
Yeah, I have been drinking my beer quite young whilst I build stocks so I guess that could be part of it.

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Permalink Reply by JoKing on December 18, 2008 at 4:02pm

2 weeks in the bottle after cold conditioning should do the trick - plus this helps age the "rough edges" out too.

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Permalink Reply by James P on December 18, 2008 at 4:42pm

The longest was 12 weeks, however I wasn't watching the temperature and after trying it after two or three weeks and finding it flat packed it away and forgot it.

I move to another vessel / bucket for bottling as I tend to bulk prime my bottles. If kegging I run straight from secondary into the keg and force carb.

I'd also have to agree with denimglen, learning to pour a HB beer will help.

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Permalink Reply by Nick on December 18, 2008 at 5:06pm

I did a similar thing, it was in the fridge but I forgot about it until 12 weeks later.
Bottled it but it was still flat 6 weeks later so I forgot about it again.

Opened another bottle about six months later and wow, I have never seen such fine bubbles. It was perfectly carbonated and stable. Pity it took so long, a man can't live for 6 months on bread alone!

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on December 18, 2008 at 4:00pm

I found this when I first started brewing but not so much anymore.

I think it's one of two things.

Learning to pour a beer and leaving the yeast behind.

Drinking a lot of brew and building up tolerance.

I've heard it's the yeast still working it's magic when it gets to your intestines. I wouldn't think it could survive the low pH of the stomach and then the high pH of the intestine though.

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