Hi I have seen this mentioned before. Can you please explain what it is? How it works? I accidently froze a couple of Morgans and upon defrosting they were the best I drank. Any idea as to why?
Thanks No Idea
cold conditioning
Ok No Idea there is two different things that get confused by a lot of brewers, they are Cold Conditioning and Lagering. I will try and explain each.
Cold Conditioning (CC):
CC is generally done with ales. To cold condition you need to have racked the beer already and it has to have finished fermentation. You reduce the temperature of the beer from ale brewing temp (18 - 22 deg) to CC temps (5 - 10 deg) then leave the beer at that temperature for a couple of days to a couple of weeks.
CC encourages the yeast and other proteins and bits in the beer to fall out of suspension. Giving you a clearer beer with a cleaner finish.
Lagering:
Largering is performed on lagers brewed with a true lager yeast at lager temps (8 - 12 deg). Again the beer needs to be racked before hand and fermentation completed. The temp is then reduced from lager temp to lagering temp around 1 - 5 deg and left for 2 weeks to several months. Lagering has the same advantage as CC in that you will have a very clear finished beer. Lagering also allows the yeast to work very slowly to clean up the flavours of the beer giving the clean crisp lager beer finish.
The biggest difference between the two is the length of time they take.
Cold Conditioning (CC):
CC is generally done with ales. To cold condition you need to have racked the beer already and it has to have finished fermentation. You reduce the temperature of the beer from ale brewing temp (18 - 22 deg) to CC temps (5 - 10 deg) then leave the beer at that temperature for a couple of days to a couple of weeks.
CC encourages the yeast and other proteins and bits in the beer to fall out of suspension. Giving you a clearer beer with a cleaner finish.
Lagering:
Largering is performed on lagers brewed with a true lager yeast at lager temps (8 - 12 deg). Again the beer needs to be racked before hand and fermentation completed. The temp is then reduced from lager temp to lagering temp around 1 - 5 deg and left for 2 weeks to several months. Lagering has the same advantage as CC in that you will have a very clear finished beer. Lagering also allows the yeast to work very slowly to clean up the flavours of the beer giving the clean crisp lager beer finish.
The biggest difference between the two is the length of time they take.