Brewing a Great Beer V

Conditioning

This weekend the secondary fermentation was completed! The "green" beer was siphoned into the conditioning keg and priming sugar was added to create the final level of carbonation. The siphoned beer ran crystal clear, with no trace of haze.

A test sample was taken and the final gravity for the beer was 1.018, which was slightly higher than the expected 1.017. The indication, then, is that fermentation was essentially completed. With these data, the estimated Alcohol by Volume (ABV) is expected to be 5.4%.

I had a chance to taste the test sample and was very pleased. If the conditioning goes well over the next couple of weeks this will be a mighty fine beer. The malt/hop balance was near perfect, with no "off" flavours interfering with the palate. This should be a beer worthy of serving to my poker buddies on April 5. Stay tuned for the final report after that date.