maturing beer in a pressure barrel before bottling

[white]

Hi,
I am looking to find out if I need to prime my beer further before bottling. I'm new to all-grain brewing and so read Graham Wheeler's book. He suggests that the beer should be matured for a few weeks in a pressure barrel before being bottled. As per his advice, I have primed the beer with 80g of malt extract before transfering it to the barrel, but I'm just not sure whether I should prime it again before bottling.

Also, can anyone tell me if it is wise to leave my primed and barrelled beer indoors for any length of time for secondary fermentation.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Ross.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

I've got Graham's book and I'm pretty sure he gives no such advice. You can transfer from keg to bottle (although I've never been daft enough to try it) by cooling the beer to as close to freezing point as possible. You'll need to do the same for all the equipment the beer touches.

[Parva]

Just sounds like an extra and totally unnecessary step to me, not to mention the added risk of infections or oxidised beer.

[nobby]

I've got Graham's book and I'm pretty sure he gives no such advice. You can transfer from keg to bottle (although I've never been daft enough to try it) by cooling the beer to as close to freezing point as possible. You'll need to do the same for all the equipment the beer touches.

He does give the advice to mature in a Pressure Barrel for a few weeks then bottle. But I am sure he says you dont need to re-prime the bottles because the natural action of yeast will slowly carbonate the bottles. But I think Graham is talking about the best possible way. As most people like to start drinking their beer after a few weeks I think straight to bottles might be best for most people.

Ross

I would may be think about bottling your beer. Also it needs to be left indoors (18-20c) for a week or so for the yeast to work and mature your beer.

[white]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. Yeah it seemed to me like it was maybe one of those steps that it would be nice to do, but that no-one actuallly does. I think I'll probably fill about 10 bottles and drink the rest from the barrel (as it's already in the barrel). Next time I won't bother - unless there is a noticible difference, in which case I'll let you know.

Thanks again,
Ross.

[TheMumbler]

"The barbaric home-brew practice of bottling straight from the fermenting vessel should be avoided if at all possible. All beer destined to be bottled shold be matured in cask first and should have dropped bright before bottling. The maturation process requires some undesirable substances to be given off to the atmosphere. These substances are volatile, and are purged out of the ale by excess carbon dioxide coming out of the solution when the cask is vented a couple of days prior to bottling (or drinking). Obviously this cannot happen if the ale is shoved into a sealed bottle shortly after fermentation. Even the worst commercial breweries mature their beers in a maturation tank before bottling"
Graham Wheeler "Home Brewing" p 114 (CAMRA, 1993)

He repeats the same advice a little less strongly in BYOBRA 2009. However lots of people do just bottle straight from secondary and are perfectly happy with the results. Personally I like light carbonation in bitters and ales but if you want much fizz I think you'll have to prime the bottles. I reckon my best results so far have been bottled this way, however I haven't brewed much or done any direct comparisons. I have also had beer I'm perfectly happy with bottled using the "barbaric" method. As it happens I have a brew split into a small keg and 20 bottles that has been in the cellar for about a week so I'm tempted to bottle up the beer in the 20l keg in a week or two and compare the results.

See if you can taste the difference then decide for yourself whether it is worth the extra bother

[white]

If you do bottle what's in your keg, it would be interesting to know if you can taste the difference. Let me know if you do it.

Cheers,
Ross.

[GeordieBrewer]

I've always matured in a pressure barrel, for a minimum of 2 weeks - recently I've found maturing for 3-4 weeks is even better. After primary fermentation, I transfer to the pressure barrel, vented with CO2, add a small amount of invert sugar solution to build up some pressure - this also seems to help prevent oxidation.

After 4 weeks, I transfer to a bottling bucket with 70g invert sugar solution, and bottle. Bottles sit for a minimum of 1 week at around 22-23C and then go into cold store for a month

It may be a an additional step, the the advantages I've seen are :

A lot of sediment drops out in the pressure barrel
Less sediment in the bottom of the bottle - easier to clean afterwards
Good carbonation, good head, but not "fizzy"
Much clearer, bright beer

Ok, admittendly it takes a couple of months to the beer to reach premium condition, but with a good rotation of bottles and batches, I can live with that.

[Tony01]

I'm a barbarian!

[Brotherton Lad]

It's not something I've tried. I usually keg almost all my beer and put 3 or 4 pints in bottles to one side. That must make me only a partial barbarian. There's a definite difference in taste between the kegged and the bottled, both drink well though.

[ade1865]

If I was looking to enter bottled beer in competitons, would this bottling from matured keg be the way forward?

[dave.wilton]

I followed these steps and I was really not happy with the results. I brewed a porter for Christmas which I gave around a month in the keg (plastic pressure barrel). I primed it when it went into the barrel and after a month I had an amazing beer in the barrel, good carbonation and head. I then bottled (without priming) and I now have a headless flat porter (I still have it left over from Christmas which says something!). This is after months in the bottle (its now march) and they still have not developed any condition (which makes sense to me now).

Maybe I got the steps wrapped around my neck, but the bottling steps from GW are far from clear. If I do put my beer in a keg now I won't leave it there for more than two weeks and I would prime going into the bottle, not the keg.

[Drafty]

I tried to condition a few brews for a few weeks in a plastic pressure barrel before bottling, and it didn't really work for me. The beer in the barrel was good, but the bottles never got any pressure back up, it was flat as a pancake. Perhaps it would be better if I primed the bottles, but that seems it shouldn't really be necessary.

For now I've gone for bottling directly from the fermenter and I've had a couple of very nice brews, and just enough sparkle in the ale. If it ain't broke.....

Perhaps one reason this works better for me is that the yeast has been working slowly and dropping out of suspension while in the fermenter. I might try a different strategy when and if I get better control of the fermentation temp and try a few other yeast types.

Matt

[Blackaddler]

I primed it when it went into the barrel and after a month I had an amazing beer in the barrel, good carbonation and head. I then bottled (without priming) and I now have a headless flat porter (I still have it left over from Christmas which says something!).

I usually half fill a Kingkeg with whatever's left after filling a firkin. I prime the Kingkeg and leave it for a week.

I prefer the results of bulk conditioning. After a few weeks, I bottle whatever's leftover.

However, I have noticed that carbonation levels in the bottles are a bit hit and miss. The last batch I bottled [and primed] is still dead flat after a couple of months. It was well carbonated at the time of bottling, and resulted in a fair bit of frothing. [I should probably have released the pressure before bottling.] On the other hand, it could be that too much yeast had dropped out of suspension.

I've got a fresh batch in the Kingkeg, so I'll test the release of pressure theory, in a few weeks time.

[wmfd]

I primed it when it went into the barrel and after a month I had an amazing beer in the barrel, good carbonation and head. I then bottled (without priming) and I now have a headless flat porter (I still have it left over from Christmas which says something!).

I usually half fill a Kingkeg with whatever's left after filling a firkin. I prime the Kingkeg and leave it for a week.

I prefer the results of bulk conditioning. After a few weeks, I bottle whatever's leftover.

However, I have noticed that carbonation levels in the bottles are a bit hit and miss. The last batch I bottled [and primed] is still dead flat after a couple of months. It was well carbonated at the time of bottling, and resulted in a fair bit of frothing. [I should probably have released the pressure before bottling.] On the other hand, it could be that too much yeast had dropped out of suspension.

I've been pleased with an approach of maturing in a keg before bottling, I do prime though when I bottle (and don't when I put it into the keg).

It does seem to take a while to build pressure. I'm assuming this is because, as you say, the yeast has largely dropped out. It does get there in the end though!

The great thing for me is the reduced amount of yeast in the bottle, which may be because I've tended to bottle to early when doing it from the FV or my general cack-handedness in terms of siphoning

David