Bottle conditioning is the act of adding a source of sugar to a beer before it’s bottled in order to have it develop carbonation in the bottle. Some people add additional yeast to the bottle along with the sugar to ensure carbonation but we only add sugar as our already existing microorganisms are happy, healthy, and looking for more sugar to create alcohol and CO2. The actual carbonation doesn’t take all that long (a couple months) but because of the complex range of microorganisms in our beer another full fermentation is triggered when we add the sugar.
As a result of this additional round of fermentation we hold our bottles in our cellar for an average of 10 months until the fermentation is over and the beer returns to a state as good as, or often event better than the original bottling.
How do we check this? Well, we take one for the team and start tasting the bottles at the 3 month point and every couple months until completion. We’ve tasted enough in-progress beers now to have a really good idea of what to expect during the bottle conditioning process. Once the beer is done, we apply labels and deliver it to you for the final taste!
On October 24, 2026 we’re going to be hosting a very special day at our brewery – our second annual Open Brew Day! It’s a free, community focused event that will allow fans of our beer to join us as we brew. Enjoy this rare opportunity to get behind the scenes and watch us brew a batch of our beer that will be fermented in barrels and eventually blended into one of our bottle releases. We’re very excited to have you join us and get behind the scenes as we brew.
At this year’s World Beer Awards, Blind Enthusiasm took home two of the most coveted titles beer: World’s Best Gueuze for Grand Manifesto, and World’s Best Kriek for Fruitful Pursuits: Cherry!
