Kevnlis wrote:Lagering (decreasing by schedule the temp from say 6C to 0C to supposedly improve the flavour of the beer) is different from cold conditioning (bringing the beer to the lowest possible temperature without freezing it to drop cold sensitive proteins and stabilise the beer).
I've never heard that definition of Cold Conditioning (that it must be done as close to freezing as possible). Nor have I heard anything about the temperature having to be reduced over time in order for a process to be called lagering. As far as I am aware, the term "lager" comes from the German word meaning "to store", and was originally done in barrels in naturally occurring caves that kept a low temperature year round (but certainly nowhere near freezing).
I'd personally make the distinction this way:
lagering is storing beer in a cold environment where the idea is to allow the yeast to continue conditioning the beer as well as other effects such as dropping tannins and proteins improve the flavour and stability of the beer. Generally requires the use of a lager yeast:
Saccharomyces pastorianus (aka Saccharomyces carlsbergensis) or
Saccharomyces uvarum, which are believed to be originally derived from an ale yeast/wine yeast hybrid that can ferment beer at low temperatures.
cold conditioning is storing beer in a cold environment where the idea is to allow the beer to condition due to effects other than that produced by yeast. This may be due to the temperature being so low that the yeast becomes dormant (generally only an issue with Ale yeast:
Saccharomyces cerevisiae), or if the beer has been filtered to remove the yeast.
I'd be pleased to update my definitions if you have any references.