cold conditioning

[Dogger Dan]

Guest,

Just stating my opinion from my limited Neandrathal experiences in making fermented reindeer milk.

You have your opinion and want to express it freely, turn around surely is fair play.

There is a downside to using plastic for long term coditioning and it is an accepted fact in most brewing circles, even here which is why folks mention long term bottle conditiong be done in glass rather than PET. They are two fold:

1 dificult to sanitise
2 permiable to the atmosphere

I don't think 2 would be an issue in this case however, number 1 always is

It would be negligent not to mention the risks in using a plastic container be it Food Grade, as you so eliquently yelled it, or not, in long term conditioning.

Ultimately NT will will make an informed decision about what he wants to do which is why he is here asking the questions.

If you are comfortable brewing in plastic, bully to you, there are thousands of ways to skin a cat.

Dogger

[NTRabbit]

Thanks Dogger, but its not long term - all im doing is racking, dry hopping 25g of hersbrucker, cold conditioning for 8 days and then bottling.

Im pretty sure those are the instructions the guy at the HBS gave to me.

I will then of course continue to lager it for another month or more in the bottle. Im guessing that with the amount of ingredients i put in and the expected ABV, its going to take a fair bit longer to reach a comfortable drinking age.

Oh, and while i do my primary fermenting in a pair of plastic carboys, all my beer (and hence secondary fermentation and the majority of my lagering) goes into glass bottles only. I save the PET bottles i have for ciders and rtd's.

[Guest]

Dogger, I'm not the only one who is comfortable brewing in plastic.
95% home brewers in AUSTRALIA BREW IN PLASTIC .
Fine we all have our opinion's , like I said . You guys use glass , WE USE PLASTIC.
No it is not difficult to sanitize. Go to the Aussiehome brew website where the best home brewers in Australia go. The big majority of these guys are All grain mash brewers who win all the state and national awards for home brew , and what do they use for fermenting and lagering .PLASTIC.

[Dogger Dan]

Guest,

Whats your point?

Glad to see Australians are winning State and National awards actually, I hate it when Japan or Guam wins all the Australian National Awards.

Really happy to see Americans winning National Awards in America. And those Rhodesians, who would have thunk they could have won a National award eh? And Butswalla? Whats with that? National award, say it ain't so.

Maybe there is a better way. Not saying glass is right. Personally, I would like a stainless fermentor and a copper kettle.

All I asked was that you present all the information and let people make their own decision.

Dogger

[Guest]

Got no point mate, just a good debate about one of my favorite subjects. Hey this isn't a bad site is it.
Bottoms up Digger , bit too early for me but I will think of you when I open my first for the day in a couple of hours PCheers

[Antsvb]

Interesting discussion.

I have recently made my first brew with a lager yeast and 'lagered' in the bottles as NTRabbit describes. When I researched on here beforehand, I recall Oliver mentioning this was an ok way to go about it. Sorry to drag you into this Oliver, but I can't recal which thread that was in.

[Oliver]

Not sure which one it was either!

But beer that I've bottled then lagered for a few weeks has definitely tasted different to its unlagered brothers.

Oliver

[Guest]

Hey Antsvb , and if you start cold conditioning in a bulk container you then start playing around with dry hopping . In my opinion the easiest and cheapest way to put another dimension to your beers.
PS. I also cold condition ales for 2 weeks just for this reason.

[protein_man]

Hello everyone, just read through all the posts on cold conditioning and just want to add my two cents worth.

I put a lager on and did this test, after 3 days in the bottles, some of the beers went in the fridge and the others in my dark cupboard. This gave the beers time to carbonate.

It's only 3 weeks later and I've just finished a comparative anaylisis (always fun) and I gotta say cold conditioning makes a huge difference to the beer! Heaps Better, more mallowed and smooth.

As a matter of fact I'm so swayed by the difference it made I'm going to go and buy another fridge and go about all my lagers this way!

[Brainface]

Speak for yourself, mystery-man.

There is nothing wrong with cold colditioning in bottles, then taking out of fridge after a month or so. Its almost the same damn thing you do, just in a different sized container.

so calm down and you might learn something.

(Although, it sounds like you already know everything)

[protein_man]

Hey Brainface whats your problem? I am calm and I read these forums so I do learn something, wouldnt be here otherwise. I was just sharing something I did, you wanna be a smart arse do it somewhere else.

[Oliver]

I'm not sure that he was directing that at you, protein_man.

But having said that, I don't know who it was, in fact, directed at

Perhaps one of the earlier guests, given the reference to "mystery-man".

Oliver

[undercover1]

Go to the Aussiehome brew website where the best home brewers in Australia go.

think it may have been this clown...ahhh, life is good when the forum doesn't allow guests to post.

[Brainface]

It was directed at the guest who was starting to get a little hostile against Canadians and Americans. (Even though im aussie)
I didnt realise that there was 2 pages to this forum because the pages are long, and i couldnt see the "Next" link on the right.

So I was responding to the last post on page one.

Sorry for the mix-up protein-man.