As many of you who have had a single serve offering from us know, our single serve offerings are 100% bottle conditioned. This is a process that involves reintroducing yeast and wort to the beer before bottling to begin a secondary fermentation that produces all of the carbonation naturally in the bottle. We believe this process provides more complexities and fuller flavors for beers like Woodcut or Hiveranno than typical force carbonation. As a result of this process you will notice that carbonation levels in our single serve beers increase over time, especially when stored warm. Due to this increase in carbonation over time in the bottle we choose to release our single serve beers on the lower end of the carbonation range. After many sensory tastings of each particular beer during the bottling conditioning process we decide that a carbonation level is appropriate for that style of beer and release it to all of you. For our most recent releases, Hiveranno and Woodcut 5, we once again released them on the lower end of our acceptable carbonation levels knowing that if cellared warm the carbonation will continue to rise. Knowing that some people prefer lowercarbonation levels for some styles and some prefer higher carbonation for the same styles we pick an acceptable range for each beer and release them when they reach that range. If you prefer a more prickly carbonation level you can cellar your Odell single serves warm and allow the flavors to develop and carbonation to increase, and if you like your beers slightly more English style on the lower end keep them cold after purchase and drink them sooner.
Cheers!
6 Responses to “Notes on bottle conditioning and the recent release of Hiveranno and Woodcut 5”
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Oh c’mon, don’t take the Tomme Arthur approach.
[...] Brewing: The brewery advises drinkers about carbonation levels in Hiveranno and Woodcut No. 5. They are intentionally released [...]
i do want to bring up a fuss with the term 100% bottle condition, fellas. there’s no need to qualify it as 100%, since you’re either bottle conditioning or not. bottle conditioning can not be done 50%. time to drop the false qualifier and be real about it. just say “bottle conditioned”.
This is not entirely true, you can in fact bottle condition between 1% and 100%, it simply depends on your process. One example is breweries who force carbonate their beer to a level within 10%-20% of their target Carbonation levels and than reintroduce yeast and wort, or Krausen, or yeast and sugar prior to bottling to achieve the desired levels of Carbonation. This method touches up the carbonation and can help with shelf life and aging because you have reintroduced a small amount of yeast, which consumes oxygen, into the bottle. A couple examples of breweries that utilize this practice with their beers are Grand Teton Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and historically Deschutes. Another option is how we bottle condition our special releases which is where we start with completely flat beer from a barrel and add yeast and wort at a calculated amount to achieve desired carbonation levels during a secondary fermentation process in the bottle. This process achieves 100% of the carbonation through bottle conditioning rather than a smaller percentage like described above.
Cheers!
Joe Mohrfeld
Head Brewer
Has the Woodcut 5 been officially released yet? If so, did it or will it make it to Nebraska? It sounds right up my alley and I’d love to get my hands on some!
Thanks, keep up the great work!
Rob M.
Omaha
Thanks Rob, Woodcut No. 5 shipped to Nebraska last week. You should see it soon. Check our beer finder for where to buy: http://odellbrewing.com/about/beer-finder
Cheers!
Amanda