Cold conditioning: carbed or not?

[chinaski1217]

I’ve got an alt that’s ready to be kegged and I plan on cold conditioning for a month or so before tapping. Should I carb it, or just clear the head space of oxygen and pressurize the keg before letting it sit?

I should add that, if it doesn’t clear on it’s own by tapping time, I’ll add some gelatin to it. Not sure if the carb level will reduce it’s effectiveness.

[ken_lenard]

Either flat or carbed will be okay for ‘aging’ or ‘conditioning’ so I would say to do what is more convenient. I often rack to keg, chill, carb and then let it sit and that goes for ales or lagers. Also, adding gel solution to the keg after the beer is chilled is preferred because the gel will help to drag haze down with it (which may not be there when the beer is room-temp). You’ll know that the gel did its job because the first pint or so will be heavily sedimented and the switch from dull to brilliantly-bright will be dramatic and abrupt. Cheers and good luck with the Altbier.

[brewingdan]

+1
Gel is swell

[chinaski1217]

@Ken Lenard

Either flat or carbed will be okay for ‘aging’ or ‘conditioning’ so I would say to do what is more convenient. I often rack to keg, chill, carb and then let it sit and that goes for ales or lagers. Also, adding gel solution to the keg after the beer is chilled is preferred because the gel will help to drag haze down with it (which may not be there when the beer is room-temp). You’ll know that the gel did its job because the first pint or so will be heavily sedimented and the switch from dull to brilliantly-bright will be dramatic and abrupt. Cheers and good luck with the Altbier.

I cold-crash everything in primary before kegging. If I choose to go ahead and carbonate when I keg, will adding the gel after carbonation reduce its effectiveness? I may keg, carbonate, then wait a month just to see if the beer clears on its own. But if it isn’t clear when I tap it after a month, I’ll want to add gelatin to clear it. Can I do this?

And Ken, I’m really eyeing your Home Run Red recipe for the summer. Any preference as far as making as a lager or ale?

Thanks for the reply.

[ken_lenard]

@Chinaski1217

[quote=“Ken Lenard”]Either flat or carbed will be okay for ‘aging’ or ‘conditioning’ so I would say to do what is more convenient. I often rack to keg, chill, carb and then let it sit and that goes for ales or lagers. Also, adding gel solution to the keg after the beer is chilled is preferred because the gel will help to drag haze down with it (which may not be there when the beer is room-temp). You’ll know that the gel did its job because the first pint or so will be heavily sedimented and the switch from dull to brilliantly-bright will be dramatic and abrupt. Cheers and good luck with the Altbier.

I cold-crash everything in primary before kegging. If I choose to go ahead and carbonate when I keg, will adding the gel after carbonation reduce its effectiveness? I may keg, carbonate, then wait a month just to see if the beer clears on its own. But if it isn’t clear when I tap it after a month, I’ll want to add gelatin to clear it. Can I do this?

And Ken, I’m really eyeing your Home Run Red recipe for the summer. Any preference as far as making as a lager or ale?

Thanks for the reply.[/quote]
I have added gel to carbed, kegged beer but I typically assume that I won’t be touching it for awhile… like a week or so. It will still work but I wouldn’t want to starting serving from it until I was more comfortable knowing it was done. I will also assume that the first pint will be tossed because it will be really sludgy. I like the idea of cold crashing the primary but I almost always reuse the yeast and I don’t have the patience (or cold storage space) to do that so I go 2-3 weeks in primary depending on ale/lager, then to a secondary with gel solution on the cool basement floor and finally to a keg in my spare fridge, chill, force-carb and possible gel again if I think it needs it.

I have the Home Run Red Lager in a cold, carbed keg at the moment, made with White Labs 830 German Lager yeast. Looking forward to trying it. You can’t go wrong with either one… make the one that sounds better or the one you have the ingredients for. If you still can’t decide, let your wife, girlfriend or significant-other decide for you. How can THAT hurt you!?!?