Any advantage in letting beer rest before carbonation?

[user 40634]

Hi, Any advice on the following couple of questions would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

I seem to have it in my head that leaving the beer to rest a while after fermentation helps the beer to mature, clear and improve before it is carbonated or primed and bottled, but I’m questioning my own logic on this given the risk of oxidation. Hence the questions below

(1) When the fermentation stage is completed, including a diacetyl rest, I usually rack my brew into a cask and leave it to settle before priming ready for bottling, I’m not sure if leaving it to settle has any advantage and it might allow some oxidation, it’s just what I’ve always done but I’d welcome your views on if it’s unnecessary and potentially damaging

(2) I’m thinking of buying some kit to keg and force carbonating some of my beers. If I transfer from my FV to a CO2 purged corny keg is there any advantage in leaving this to stand for a few days before increasing the pressure to carbonate?
Thanks

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

(1) When the fermentation stage is completed, including a diacetyl rest, I usually rack my brew into a cask and leave it to settle before priming ready for bottling, I’m not sure if leaving it to settle has any advantage and it might allow some oxidation, it’s just what I’ve always done but I’d welcome your views on if it’s unnecessary and potentially damaging

Leaving it to settle has two main benefits

1. It helps it clear, helped if you add gelatin or cold crash

2. The flavours need time to develop - particularly for strong brews - you need to allow 1 week conditioning time for each 10 points above 1000 of the OG i.e. 1050 needs 5 weeks

If your cask is sealed there is no risk of oxidisation, why would there be?

Just relax, give your beer time to condition properly and go and enjoy another pint

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

(2) I’m thinking of buying some kit to keg and force carbonating some of my beers. If I transfer from my FV to a CO2 purged corny keg is there any advantage in leaving this to stand for a few days before increasing the pressure to carbonate?
Thanks
[/QUOTE]

You must put the keg under at least 3 psi pressure to seal properly, also can't see why you would wait a few days - the key is properly conditioning beer

 

[smcc]

no point after kegging not to set pressure to carbonate, you can if you want leave it at a lower pressure and let it carbonate over a longer period. We will pressure transfer to keg our helles at the brewpub and let it do its conditioning over 6 weeks at 20psi. I brew mostly IPAs and other hoppy beers so I rather enjoy them fresh I find about 5 days at force carb pressure works fine

 

[user 40634]

Thanks for the replies and advice, it’s appreciated that you took the time, I’ll take this on-board