From: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us (Joseph Nathan Hall)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: Re: Yes, Virginia, It Will Clear!
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 02:07:03 EDT
Organization: 5 Sigma Software
Reply-To: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us
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A fellow recently wrote to me:

> In article <01050166.ldda6o@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us> you wrote:
> >From what I've read (papazian, miller, burch and others) after one week
> in the bottle, an ale anyway, should be drinkable and fresh. Experience
> tells you and I otherwise.

I was composing a reply to him, but it got lengthy and became of somewhat
general interest, so I thought I'd post it:

Hmm.  My first homebrewing reference was Dave Line's Big Book of Brewing.
He definitely emphasizes the need for aging of strong beer in the
Big Book as well as in the recipes in Brewing Beers Like Those You
Buy.

After a quick glance at Papazian I can't find any references to aging
in bottles.  He helpfully suggests aging mead, but frankly I find
young mead much more drinkable than some young beers.  Perhaps Charlie
doesn't want to make the process seem any more time-consuming or troublesome
than necessary.

Certainly Burch doesn't.

There are several factors at play here.  In general, brilliantly clear
beer will taste OK.  Its flavor will change with time.  If it's suitably
strong (OG 1.050+) it should keep for a year or more if it was brewed
with care.  The beer becomes a bit drier and frequently takes on subtle
and complex vaguely wine-, sherry- or Belgian-like characteristics that
might result from bacteria, might result from yeast, might just be
chemical changes.  Who knows.  In general, the beer's flavor improves,
although hop aroma and flowery, vaguely astringent "green" hop taste 
will be dimished over time.

Miller is mostly a lager brewer, and as such perhaps he is used to
bottling mostly beers that are already brilliantly clear with an acceptable
taste.

Now, it happens that many strong beers will not clear all that quickly
at the end of secondary fermentation.  By that I mean that I have
seen many beers in the range 1.060-1.090 take 2-6 months to clear
completely.  Why?  For one, yeast activity will continue for a long
period of time, particularly if the wort was dextrinous (mashed at
a higher temperature).

In general, brews that are cloudy at room temperature do not taste
good, even when uninfected.  (I'm assuming the beers are in fact
uninfected.)  There is usually a strong, astringent bitterness.  There may
be a soupy, brothy taste.  There may be other harsh flavors...saltiness,
for example.  The malt character is obscured, as are most other pleasant
aspects of the flavor.  I assume that this is due to husk and hop
tannins and other grundgy cold break material that for whatever reason
failed to settle out quickly.  Some of these particles are evidently
very, very small and are loath to settle until all activity within
the fermenter/bottle has ceased.  But once this gunk falls out, the real
beer is revealed.

The quantity of stuff that makes up the haze may in fact be very small.
My observation is that after a couple of months in a carboy, whatever
is left settles into an adequately thin and firm layer in the bottle,
usually not more than the typical thin yeast layer.  So I don't worry
about it when bottling.

Failure to skim/blow off during primary fermentation may contribute
to this problem.  I have never skimmed nor blown off beers.  I use
a large blowoff hose as a safety mechanism, not to expel resins and
other stuff.  My understanding is that the intensely bitter tannins
concentrated in the kreusen residue are not particularly soluble
even in strong beer, and that if you taste them in your beer it is
probably because there are some very fine particles still in suspension.
I don't let beer linger around the stuff in the primary, anyway,
and strong beers frequently get racked twice.

Thus I am content to let my beers sit for a few months because of
these two aging effects: the gradual drying and improved
cleanness and complexity that will result in an unoxidized, uninfected
beer, and the complete clarification of a problematically cloudy brew.
(Strong beers that contain wheat malt are especially troublesome.)
Even if you could blow off, repeatedly fine, or filter your beer to
accelerate the second effect, you could not accelerate the first.
Furthermore, overfining and overfiltering will remove body and other
desirable feel/flavor characteristics from your beer, and might well
impair its *ability* to age properly.  Time, in my opinion, produces 
superior results.  (If you have patience.)

I've found that light- to medium-bodied beers (OG 1.045-) are indeed
just about as good as they will ever be from two to four weeks after
bottling.  (This excludes, of course, beers deliberately inoculated
with lactic acid bacteria or slow-growing yeast.)  But I have also found
that I am greatly rewarded for my patience when I let my stronger
beers sit quietly in a cool room for a few months.  Or a couple of
years.

Now, who was it talking about Younger's Majority Ale?

Cheers ...

================O Fortuna, velut Luna, statu variabilis================
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Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing