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fermenting

sam31

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I have a question about ageing
After my beer has stopped fermenting do I need to put c02 in it or can I leave it the fermenting bucket to age it.
 
How long do you plan to age the beer?  Over four weeks would not be a good idea in a bucket.  Plastics do have some air permeability which would lead to slow oxidation.  It would be possible to trickle CO2 into the bucket but would be cost prohibitive.  Unless the bucket has an unusually good seal which would allow pressurization the CO2 would still mix with atmospheric gases as the CO2 leaks out and air leaks in.

You can bulk age in a glass carboy filled to the neck to eliminate almost all air.  Best would be a keg which can be purged with CO2 and sealed.  The easiest and lowest cost method would be to age in bottles.
 
Greetings sam31 - in addition to flars comments, I will add that it's not a good idea to leave your beer on the primary yeast bed for a prolonged period of time.  The rule I've read about and practiced is no longer than 4 weeks.  So when you say "age it", you need to consider the ramifications. My suggestion would be to use another vessel for the aging process.
 
Hello Sam,

I am not sure if it matters that much.....but its only my opinion of course  :D

I left my brew (FG 1.010) to ferment for 2 weeks using my brew fridge with a heater and temp controller. My FV has a bottom valve so I was able to take samples for gravity readings throughout the fermentation, so I didn't need to open the FV and therefore allow ingress of Air/O2. Using the same FV and brew fridge, when the fermentation was complete, I crash cool to as low as possible (1.5C) to clear the beer and maintained this temp for 6 days. I then kegged off the brew into a "corny" keg and its currently been stored under CO2 (1.8vols) to age for a couple of weeks. I have had a sneaky taste and it's fine... :)

Cheers
Ian
 
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