So I hear you like to age your beer??

[Whorst]

I sent Vinnie Cilurzo, the owner and brewer of Russian River in Santa Rosa, California an email this afternoon regarding how long he ages Pliny The Elder before it's bottled. If you're not familiar with Pliny, it's an Imperial IPA that's 8% abv. It drinks like a beer that's 5%, which makes it scary. His response was "After fermentation it is dry hopped for two weeks and then it is centrifuged and bottled." The bottle also suggests not to age the beer, that it is best fresh. Bottles of this stuff pop up in the UK I've been told. If you ever get a chance to purchase a bottle, I would highly recommend it.

[Capped]

Get it down the neck as soon as it's clear and carbonated satisfactorily,I say! Prolonged storage does,IMO change a beer... not necessarily for the better.

[booldawg]

What does centrifuging do?

[Bryggmester]

I suppose it gets all the yeast and any other crud that may be floating about and separates it from the brew.

[beermonsta]

teacher in me getting out here...

Imagine you are the yeast/crap floating in the beer. Now imagine you where put on a spinning playground merry-go-round ...

...without any handels now imagine it was spinning at a few thoudsand RPM's...your soon going to be thrown outwards (aka centrifugal force "to flee from the cenre in latin don't you know!)
Hence crap to the outside, clean beer in the middle. Not sure how they separate the two ...filters? draw beer off from centre? crap sticks to the outside?

well if that doesn't explain it I'll have to use the "washing machine" analogy

Ben

[flything]

The reason that American Imperial 'India' Pale Ales are best drunk young is because they are designed that way, the aroma and flavour that is created by the massive late hop additions will mellow if they are aged. I've had Brewdog beers that are obviously different in age and they have been completely different even though they were the same beer (Chaos Theory).