Conditioning in the keg

This question has been touched on in some other posts, but no direct answer to this question. I've brewed a Belgium pale ale and left it in the primary fermenter for 4 days, then 12 days in the secondary. At that point I put it in the keg and then back in the fridge at 65 F. I'd like to put it in the Kezzer at about 2 C because I have more space there and need the fridge for the next batch. BS 2 sheet recommends a 4 day primary, 10 day secondary, and 30 day conditioning all at about 65 F. Does it really matter if I let it condition at 65 F or 2 C? I don't really have much choice since I can only ferment one beer in the fridge at a time, but I can fit 4 corny kegs in the keezer. I'm just wondering if I'm loosing anything by not letting it sit around at 65 F. My final gravity is below 1.008 so I'm pretty sure all the sugar conversion has taken place.

Hi mate,

I usually ferment ales till they reach FG or close to, then keg then let sit for about 7-10 days at the same temp I fermented at or about 18c, like an in keg secondary I suppose. After that straight to 2c in my keg serving fridge with the CO2 on for cabination. I have tried leaving them longer, say 3-4 weeks at 18c for my secondary/aging, but I dont really get much, if any improvement for the extra time. 

I used to go straight from primary when FG was 100% reached, then into keg, then straight to my keg fridge at 2c. Thus skipping the secondary alltogether. I found the resulting beer seemed unfinished and if it was a bigger beer it would seem sickly sweet.

Hope this helps..

You won't lose anything. Ale yeast are pretty much hibernating after 2 weeks.

Sickly sweet might be from underpitch, lack of aeration, poor temperature control, poor recipe, unfavorably high mash temp or if extract, it could be an extract can with a lot of unfermentables or even poor water chemistry.

Where does Beersmith 2 sheet recommend  4 +10 + 30 days?


Sometimes if I need fermenter space I just throw the carboy in any closet in the house, as long as it has hit high krausen.

Thanks for the replies, I'm putting it in the Keezer today and hooking up to the CO2. I usually can't wait too long to taste it, but we'll see.

To answer the question on "Where does BS tell me how long to ferment and condition.  If I go into my recipe for that beer and go to the "design" tab it has windows for primary and secondary fermentation. These default to 4 days and 10 days respectfully, but you can put in your actual. Then if I go to the fermentation tab there is a graph that shows the primary time and temp, then the secondary time and temp then a flat line at 65 F that goes past the 30 day mark.

4 days is quick!  Does anyone think that could have been longer to allow the yeast to clean up?

They'll still be in suspension in the secondary. Yeast sitting on the bottom don't clean up anything. How could they? They are no longer in contact with the beer...




The only downside to not doing a long secondary is the amount of yeast that will drop to the bottom of the keg when chilled. It will show up in the first 1-3 beers depending on yeast type and how long it's been chilled. I normally do 2 weeks primary and then keg. This allows more of the beer to be consumed while fresher. I figure my beers to be stale at about 3-5 months.

Ways to avoid yeast dropping would be cold-crashing before transfer to keg. Also using a gelatin fining could help coagulate the yeast and let it compact better on the bottom of the keg. I don't do this. I mainly just draw off a couple ounces a few seperate times while the beer carbs up and then be careful not to move around the keg once everything is settled.

grathan said:

They'll still be in suspension in the secondary. Yeast sitting on the bottom don't clean up anything. How could they? They are no longer in contact with the beer...

Click to expand...

Apologies if I've muddled things, I must have misinterpreted a previous discussion on primary/secondary opinions:
http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php/topic,10826.15.html

So Grathan, I gather you're saying that the "clean up" process will move to secondary with the yeast that is still in suspension?  Let me know if I'm still confused  :-[

I don't know which points your confused on from the other thread.

Lemmie try to simplify things for you..


If your not brewing lagers then you don't need to worry about yeast cleaning up at all.


It happens almost immediately after fermentation is done. I suggest you taste your beer at early stages. Note the acetaldehyde flavor and try to discern it from the flavor of yeast still  in suspension. You could even try kegging half a batch after one week and leave the other half in a carboy for a month. They will taste the same (as long as you don't oxidize the other half).

Thanks Grathan, much appreciated.