I just got done brewing a Biere de Garde with California Common yeast and was wondering if I should treat the beer as a lager and cold condition once it’s in the secondary, or condition the beer at cellar temps instead?
I’m a bit confused because I’ve read that most farmhouse ales should be cold conditioned but I’ve thought that yeast character is an important part of a good farmhouse. I made a 10 gallon batch and have the beer fermenting in (2) 6 gallon carboys so I was thinking of maybe trying both options to see if there’s a difference.
Clarification. Beer was brewed 7 days ago. It’s fermenting at 64F right now. I’m going to rack it into a secondary if I cold condition or I’ll just rack it right into a keg if I’m cellaring and carbonate and serve once it’s ready.
Do you have a way to control fermentation temperature?
The best thing to do with these (per Jamil) is to pitch at 64 degrees, let it get going, and ramp up the temperature a few degrees per day until you get to 70-72. This allows the yeast to fully attenuate and dry the beer out. The key to BDG’s is an upfront malt sweetness/complexity followed by a bone dryness. The ramp up in temp is how you get that.
Since it was pitched 7 days ago, most of fermentation is over with. I would recommend moving it to a warm area of the house, leaving it for another week (or better yet, two), THEN cold conditioning for a month or so. Then bottle and age in the basement or somewhere cool. You aren’t going to like this, but leave it for 9 months to a year. Brew something else in the meantime.
The genius of this style is it has enough dark malts (I’m assuming you brewed the brun (brown) variety of BDG) for it to really come alive after some aging. Some of the alcohol warmth becomes a pruney/raisiny/curranty deliciousness with a super dry finish.
The beer will be very good in a month, but it will be AWESOME in a year.
To your question, yes, yeast character is important in these. Conditioning at this stage in your brew shouldn’t reduce or limit that character though.
Can you post your recipe, and gravities? That would help in the answer.
If you can’t tell, I’m $#@ing obsessed with this style.
