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Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc.

Posted by Nick B. on 2010-01-05 01:22:34

Bottle conditioned is beer that has been specifically primed to finish fermenting in the bottle, which essentially makes it bottled Real Ale. Bottled unfiltered beer isn't bottle conditioned if it's gone through the normal lagering process before bottling, and this is what I suspect unfiltered bottled German Lagerbier is. I *suspect*, however, I don't really know. I'll have to ask a brewer. I'm skeptical of the idea of truly bottle conditioned lager, simply because lager yeast works so much slower and colder than ale yeast does. Under ideal conditions (temperature, mainly), bottle conditioned beer will certainly last longer, but of course ale yeast tolerates cellar temperature better than lager yeast does. A nice experiment would be to lager two bottles of the same beer--one filtered and one not--at 5-10°C for 6 months and compare them. Next time you're there, ask them about their shelf life dating: AFAIK there is no standard. Some breweries give their beer a 3 month shelf life, others--the megabreweries in particular--give theirs a year. Your best-by 27 December beer may have been bottled in September. What is different here from Yankley is that it is *illegal* to sell expired beer here.

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Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Fred Waltman on  2010-01-05 17:08:46