Cold Conditioning

Over the winter I would condition my 5 gallons of beer for two weeks, in bottles and at room temperature. Then I would move them to the garage for two weeks and considered that my “cold conditioning”. Now that we are moving into spring, I will be following up my two weeks of room temperature conditioning with two more weeks of room temperature conditioning.

Can I get some constructive criticism from some more experienced brewers?

Your beer will be fine. Cool or cold conitioning is nice, but not necessary. Many of us have brewed in situations where we didn’t have the space or equipment to cold condition and still produced excellent beer. I started brewing many years ago and never had a dedicated temp controlled place to cold condition until about 2.5 years ago. I had to condition at room or basement temps. I like to now be able to cold condition, but even so, I have enough of a backlog of beer, that there are generally 3-5 cases that must wait their turn to be cycled into the freezer to be cold conditioned.

I’m with you Jobu. In the colder months I am able to ferment in my basement for a few weeks, and then transfer to my garage for a cold crash. With it being warmer now I have just been leaving them in the basement with an ambient of around 62-65 (warmer than I would like but it’s what I have for now). Everything has turned out fine so far. :cheers:

+1 This is my method as well
Must be…Dr’s orders…hahaha :roll:

17 brews with no formal cold crash and all have been very well accepted.

Temps stay between 60-66 for fermentation, additional conditioning and bottling.

I usually have to shut down come late May through September though. :shock:

In the 25+ batches I’ve made, I just now cold crashed a Pliny the Elder clone for the first time. 95% of my brews have been very good, but there are some that would have benefited from either a cold crash or temp controlled. I just happened to have only one keg in my kegerator at the moment, so my carboy fit in there.

I have an offer for a free freezer…I just now have to convince the wife to let me put it in the basement. That would open up the door to a lot of different things, including lagering.