I'm a Engineer by training who has now found myself running a long standing (20 yr+) brewery in the UK. I have no background in brewing, but have strong background in everything else it takes to run a brewery. I've therefore set out to learn everything I can about about the brewing side.
There's one thing that I am confused about however, and this is our (and many other breweries around us) policy of stopping fermentations by skimming (open tops) and applying cooling before a beer has fermented out (typically somewhere between 1012 and 1010... 3-4 points above where we expect it to finish.. ( however no brewers I have spoken to seem to have done a forced attenuation to check this point)).
Now I understand this policy for cask beers, where we are looking for further fermentation to take place in cask, but this policy doesn't generally change when we are brewing beers for bottle or keg. In fact many times we split a brew 50:50 bottle and cask.
All the reading I have done ( brewing elements yeast for example) talks about fermenting out, and letting the yeast 'clean up' the beer. My feelings are that by continually stopping (slowing) fermentations at 1010 (maybe 1012 if they are fast) we aren't letting the yeast do this and are also leaving a relatively unstable beer in bottle with high levels of fermentables (we aren't bottle conditioning bit do generally sterile filter)
I have spoken to our brewing consultant (who is pretty old school) and others and no one else seems to see a problem with stopping early ... Although it seems to be against all the reading I have been doing. In fact I can't find anything at all about stopping fermentations early.. Except in relation to cask. Our own head brewer learnt on the job so does it this way as it is the way we always have done. I'm now finding myself in disagreement with our brewing consultant who is more than aware that I have no brewing background.. So doesn't really rate anything I have to say in the subject.
The general argument against fermenting out is that it will effect the mouth feel etc, but again should we be relying on fermentable to provide this? Or adjusting receipe / mash temps etc to increase non fermentable sugars? My reading suggests the latter.
Anyway I am just after some thoughts as to whether I'm missing something here? Or are we (and others around us) just blindly brewing in the way they always have.. Without thinking to adjust things for bottle or keg.. And letting the beer finish fermenting properly.
Thanks for your help!
There's one thing that I am confused about however, and this is our (and many other breweries around us) policy of stopping fermentations by skimming (open tops) and applying cooling before a beer has fermented out (typically somewhere between 1012 and 1010... 3-4 points above where we expect it to finish.. ( however no brewers I have spoken to seem to have done a forced attenuation to check this point)).
Now I understand this policy for cask beers, where we are looking for further fermentation to take place in cask, but this policy doesn't generally change when we are brewing beers for bottle or keg. In fact many times we split a brew 50:50 bottle and cask.
All the reading I have done ( brewing elements yeast for example) talks about fermenting out, and letting the yeast 'clean up' the beer. My feelings are that by continually stopping (slowing) fermentations at 1010 (maybe 1012 if they are fast) we aren't letting the yeast do this and are also leaving a relatively unstable beer in bottle with high levels of fermentables (we aren't bottle conditioning bit do generally sterile filter)
I have spoken to our brewing consultant (who is pretty old school) and others and no one else seems to see a problem with stopping early ... Although it seems to be against all the reading I have been doing. In fact I can't find anything at all about stopping fermentations early.. Except in relation to cask. Our own head brewer learnt on the job so does it this way as it is the way we always have done. I'm now finding myself in disagreement with our brewing consultant who is more than aware that I have no brewing background.. So doesn't really rate anything I have to say in the subject.
The general argument against fermenting out is that it will effect the mouth feel etc, but again should we be relying on fermentable to provide this? Or adjusting receipe / mash temps etc to increase non fermentable sugars? My reading suggests the latter.
Anyway I am just after some thoughts as to whether I'm missing something here? Or are we (and others around us) just blindly brewing in the way they always have.. Without thinking to adjust things for bottle or keg.. And letting the beer finish fermenting properly.
Thanks for your help!
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