Why You Should Be Bottle Conditioning Your Hazy IPA

We bottle conditioned a hazy ipa to see how it would affect our beer. Needles to say it turned out pretty good. Enjoy this quick discussion over the theory of why conditioning this beer style may actually improve It's flavor development and reduce the degrading impacts of oxidization. We also give you a quick how to tutorial on how to do it yourself.
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[@kinggorf]

I've been adding 20g of priming sugar (& 5g of ascorbic acid) at dry hopping on my hoppy beers lately. I dry hop for about 6 to 8 hours (with some agitation along the way) then I closed transfer to keg with a spunding valve set to 30 PSI. My fermentor is pressure capable up to 30 PSI, so I'll also set the spunding valve to 25 after dry hopping. I've been using the "Ass Corb" per your suggestion and its been working great. I find bottle conditioning and limiting O2 pickup challenging at the homebrew level even with counterpressure devices like a tapcooler. I recently bought some mini half gallon kegs & for beer on the go I've been closed transferring with spunding valve. No loss in carbonation & the beer character taste just as good as they do fresh from the main keg. Cannot recommend those mini kegs enough! So much better than growlers!

[@matthewreed1515]

Great job guys. You’ve given me a lot to think about and tinker with as usual. The place is looking sweet! Keep up the good work.

[@fabianescoto4689]

How much time would you recommend bottle conditioning before refrigerator on these types (neipas).. thanks guys, love the video! Very informative

[@garluis23]

hey guys, great content! its been pure gold for me and my friend. we brewed our first American IPA and a Russian Imperial Ale. I've been trying to convince my friend to do bottle conditioning but he insists that force carbonation on a kegg is the way to go. can u guys help with pro and cons? also i think it coud be a great topic for the brewing myths series

[@tylerwilson4951]

The solution is simple. Keg condition your beer. Add priming sugar to your keg, transfer in and let it sit for a week or two until it’s carbonated, then serve on tap. Then you can both be right! Haha

[@scandinavianserialki]

I agree with the Alex fellow who in some of the other comments said it does scrub the oxygen from the beer but not the headspace. Did you guys bottle with some headspace? I've found that when I bottled neipas they would get to proper carbonation, taste good for a week and then they would start turn. The color would darken and the hops would drop off a cliff. There was no way we could keep all the oxygen out. I've never looked back from closed transfer kegging and force carbonating.

[@GenusBrewing]

A lot of people have fallen in love with the closed transfer - and outside of a couple growlers we actually canned the entire batch - and in both the growlers and the cans left as close to zero headspace as possible. This is the second batch we've can conditioned and we are loving the results!

[@wrojasgpd]

@@GenusBrewing great video guys..I am currently trying this for the first time in cans (i normally keg).. I racked into 16oz cans straight from the fermenter and dropped a carb drop inside and seemed the can with no headspace. How long would you say it takes to properly carbonate ?

[@petercatto9795]

You guys I have the best job in the world and you have to show us guys around the new Brewery have a nice day

[@GenusBrewing]

Will do!

[@chriswakfer4473]

Isn't carbing in a growler iffy? Always read that they aren't meant to be under pressure and could burst.

[@thijsdew1988]

Hey guys, thnks for the video it's really helpful. I've been having zome problems botteling my hazy ipa's, i think all of them so far have been oxidized.. or whatever.. so if i understand correctly you guys start botteling after one week of fermentation? And at what temperature do you let the bottles stand and for how long? I'm thinking my next batch i'm going to use ascorbic acid and do botteling conditioning when botteling.. do you have any tips? Gr thijs from the netherlands

[@jonathansavoy665]

Could also depend on your grain bill. Heard of Chit? Try it. Great for head retention.

[@GenusBrewing]

I love chit!

[@brentm4386]

How much sugar/carb drops do you add to prime a growler?

[@shellydrelly]

Does the yeast and microbes in the final product survive your stomach acid? If so could these have a sort of probiotic affect?

[@drewviehman5913]

Might try on my next brew!

[@GenusBrewing]

Let us know how it goes!

[@paulbehrens5842]

I secondary ferment in my 20L kegs with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on the time of year - temps in Victoria AUS vary heaps). Isn't this the same as bottle conditioning? I have force carbonated my kegs in the past but the CO2 aint cheap and I went through a bottle way to quick carbonating kegs this way.

[@peterpoel1019]

How do you bottle condition in only 5 days? I exclusively bottle condition and don’t get good carb for 2-3 weeks. I’ve avoided this style because of this

[@Joelification1]

At what temperature?

[@nickwinn7812]

@@Joelification1 Temperature is everything . Condition at the same temperature as you do the fermentation. Bottle conditioning is fermenting in the bottle in order to cabonate.

[@johnreynolds3904]

Nice Video, guys. Did you say just used carb drops? If so, just one per bottle?

[@MilanFR94]

What about bottle conditioning IPA or west coast IPA, can you bottle it after 7 days? I am thinking about trying it.

[@jayo7067]

How many carb drops in a growler?

[@GenusBrewing]

We used 5 for medium carbonation - you can do 6 for higher carb though.

[@funkybrewer6298]

So I recently brewed this style of beer. On the day I bottled it the flavor was an intense mango. However, after two weeks of conditioning it went stale and lost all of the mango. I believe it oxidized because it tastes papery and looks dark brown. Do you think this is because conditioning should be shorter with this style?

[@nickwinn7812]

No, it oxidised because you let oxygen in somehow. Check you seal the bottles well next time.

[@timlillig261]

Hi guys, great video. Did you cold crash prior to bottling? Thanks

[@GenusBrewing]

In this one we did - however that's not typical for us :)

[@ericbeardo]

Interesting video guys! What type/brand of glasses are those?

[@GenusBrewing]

They are AnDer Beer Tasting glasses!

[@thijsdew1988]

Does anyone know what's the best yeast for bottle conditioning a hazy ipa?

[@barrywalsh6342]

Am I right in saying you only carbed the beer for 5 days?

[@Nikkenai]

Can you guys show how to make a drinkable allgrain beer with minimum effort and time as an experiment?

[@GenusBrewing]

Absolutely!

[@brentm4386]

Do you remove the dry hops after a certain amount of time or leave them on until bottling?

[@tomhalf3018]

Depends on the hops an the amount, i personally pull hops on day 5max if their in a muslin bag

[@StevenCrampton]

Do it... just do it. Love from Delaware, Steve

[@chrisstrzalka3055]

Can anyone tell me how they prevented oxidation?

[@GenusBrewing]

Ascorbic Acid and an early canning/bottling time.

[@TheLolstyle]

@@GenusBrewing Did you only use ascorbic acid or did you also use it in combo with SMB? And at what concentration did you use ascorbic acid?

[@johnroberts1771]

Also very curious how much and when it was used? Not much info online

[@DarwinsBeerReviews]

Beautiful glass. Strange how it has such a narrow space to get the nose though. I guess it arguably concentrates the aroma too. Awesome looking beer. Surprised you guys recommend it. Makes some sense though!

[@GenusBrewing]

Those are great for maximizing the experience of smaller samples (when the glass is half or less full) and to a pretty good job full as well, although because of the narrow neck they aren't really suited to be all the way filled.

[@DarwinsBeerReviews]

@@GenusBrewing Interesting!

[@johnstepikura5993]

Water profile please?

[@GenusBrewing]

This one is a little weird because it's just a small set of adjustments from our aquifer water: (and a rough estimate) Ca 110 SO4 30 Cl 50 Mg 15 Na 30 HCO3 120

[@ulyssebricault8210]

wouldn’t casking a hazy oxydize the beer? I always thought casks are actually pretty porous and let ambient air in, my guess is you'd have to drink the beer inside of a day or two to maintain freshness if you were to cask it...

[@markhamstra1083]

Yes, with the traditional treatment of cask ale, there will be a lot of ambient air and oxygen coming into the cask once it has been tapped and ale is being served from it - when you pull a pint, you are also pulling air into the cask to replace that volume. Traditional cask ales are hard enough to keep fresh for a decent length of time, so I have to believe that trying to do traditional cask service of a NEIPA would be disastrous unless you at least went away from tradition and vented the cask not to atmosphere, but to an inert gas supply (i.e. some combination of CO2 and nitrogen.)

[@syke512]

I'd like to see a keg to cask video

[@karllundmark9020]

Hey Guys, nice video. what is the name of those glasses you use?

[@GenusBrewing]

They are AnDer Beer tasting glasses!

[@JonLijoi]

Don’t we have to worry a bit about the bottles exploding if we bottle after only a week in primary?

[@rmdean10]

I don’t know but I have the same question. I haven’t brewed much but bottle after I reach final gravity. But I’m unclear on what the actual principles I should follow are.

[@dt4676]

@@rmdean10 I'm no expert but they left out a lot of info here

[@kennygraley824]

Iv been waiting for a cask video lol.... do it That beer looks the part👌 Cheers

[@GenusBrewing]

We've been wanting to start casking since Logan read a handful of cellerman books a couple years ago.... Can't wait!!!

[@peclass428]

I disagree with this wholeheartedly, I had a ton of issues with oxygen when bottle conditioning. Yeast will scrub oxygen but not all of it, and there is a ton of points for oxygen exposure with common bottle conditioning techniques. You can close transfer to a keg to avoid any and all oxygen. I just switched to kegging and noticed a MAJOR difference in my kegged beer over my bottled beer. But the effects from bottle conditioning is interested. I felt like if everything was purged with CO2 you could get the benefits of bottle conditioning.

[@Alex-dv6cx]

the yeast does scrub all the O2 in the beer, but not from the headspace (it gets pushed out in the bucket, but it's trapped in the bottle). filling bottles to the very top produces a ton of difference, it's comparable, or even better than kegging and I never had a problem with bottle bombs, even on higher carbonation beers. try bottling a couple this way next time and see for yourself!

[@peclass428]

Alex, I’ll have to test that with my next batch, I just don’t know if I’ll even find bottling worth it for even a little gain! Just kegged for the first time and I love it!

[@GenusBrewing]

Nothing wrong with disagreement! I was a keg purist for IPAs for a long time because of things like closed transfer and the flavors you can get from briting and force carbing. Bottle conditioning was a great experience, and like Alex I think it's totally worth at least pulling off a growler to try a side by side on your next batch! :) Also we did fill the cans and growlers to the tippy top when we "bottled"

[@modgrip805]

As I understand it, bottle conditioning does not scrub O2 (scrubbing being a byword for eliminating) Yeast, at the bottle conditioning stage, is no longer in its growth phase and therefore does not need nearly as much oxygen.

[@dreess8085]

I also disagree with most of this video. Especially telling people that yeast plays no role in haze @1:56 If you ever get a chance to go to white labs tasting room you can do flights of beer with the same grain bill with just dif types of yeast, the difference in appearance will surprise you.

[@GenusBrewing]

That part could have been more clear for sure - but what Logan was saying is that the yeast in suspension are not the cause of Haze in an otherwise clear beers. We make a point to tell people this because there are many breweries who brew otherwise relatively clear beer, but force yeast to remain in suspension to get the haze which results in a less than pleasant mouthfeel (and flavor in more extreme cases). The type of yeast certainly has an impact (how they react with oils to bind those to proteins, and also how they bind proteins to flocculate and clarify the beer), but the haziness does not, and should not, rely on yeast in suspension. That said we always appreciate differing opinions because that is the best way to learn/grow!

[@ssaxamaphone]

@@GenusBrewing when bottle conditioning hazies, do you ever swirl/roll the bottles to resuspend the yeast before drinking?

[@nickwinn7812]

THE REASON FOR THE HAZE IS THE PROTEIN - BECAUSE THIS IS A WHEAT BEER -NOT AN IPA!

[@jeffbrislane5782]

Side by side video please!

[@GenusBrewing]

Will do!

[@richardcasper2209]

To clarify... cuz I’m stealing :) Week in primary, five days condition, one day in fridge? It carb’d up that nice in just five days!!????

[@GenusBrewing]

Yep! The beauty of this style is the yeast is still fresh and active going into bottle/cans so it should condition quicker. (I always start with a tester bottle/can before fridging all of them though)

[@Elias-vs2dx]

It's been to long since your last video

[@GenusBrewing]

We're trying to get back on schedule! :p

[@Elias-vs2dx]

@@GenusBrewing awesome. I can't wait

[@poisonpotato1]

Everything I read and experience tells me not to bottle hazy IPAs

[@GenusBrewing]

We learned that LoDo kegging was the way to go too- but after canning a handful of batches we honestly love the creamy smoothness and intense fruity aromas we've gotten from it. We also ascorbic all our IPAs so that helps with reducing oxidation risks.

[@aorakiboydog]

Isn’t the haze coming from an up side down bottle ? Looks like a glass of yeast, just saying.

[@GenusBrewing]

The same haze will come out of our cans that we have conditioned upright - some haze can come from yeast but the haze that is special to this beer style should mostly come from a combination of proteins and oils - although yeast will commonly be in the mix. "hazy IPAs" that rely on yeast for their source of haze often have an additional bit from the excess yeast in suspension and aren't as pleasant. :)

[@aorakiboydog]

Genus Brewing ....cool 🙂