Both of these can do some great things for your beer, but we find one of them better than the other.

With a lot of new brewers out there we thought it would be good to answer this question.

Depending on what you read or who you ask everyone has a different answer to these questions. So we are going to tell you what we think you should do and why you should do it.

When it comes to conditioning your beer it is better to let it sit at fermentation temperature. Just like wine beer’s flavor will improve with time.

When you bottle your beer and you add your carbonation drops or sugar the yeast wakes back up again to eat those sugars and create the C02 in your beer.

The yeast will also clean up off-flavors during this time. The longer your beer sits the more time the yeast will have to clean up off-flavors.

So if you have a bad taste in your brew let those bottles sit out at room temperature for another a few weeks and the majority of the time that flavor will clean up.

With all of our bottles of beer that we have in the office, we have them sitting at fermentation temperature for a few weeks. Then when we are getting ready to drink some, we will move them into the fridge.

Now letting your beer sit in the refrigerator will do a few things. The cold will help your beer clear up and have all that sediment settle to the bottom of the bottle.

The cold will also help your beer absorb all the C02 that was created to make sure it is nice and carbonated when you go drink it.

The general rule of thumb is to let your beer sit in the fridge for a minimum of 48 hours. We always try and go for at least 72 or longer.

A few tips for you when it comes to conditioning your beer.

Hop bitterness and aroma will fade over time, so don’t let those IPA’s and Pale Ales sit for too long.

Beers high in ABV will smooth out over time during conditioning.

If your going to condition a beer for longer than 6 months we would suggest getting oxygen barrier bottles or glass bottles for that.

Cheers!