A fermentation schedule mostly follows the yeast, so this set doesn't try
to cover every beer. It covers the cases where the shape of the schedule
matters and there's a common mistake to avoid: holding a Belgian cool,
letting a saison stall, crashing a lager before the diacetyl is gone. Each
description says which mistake it's for.
The common shape
Six of the eleven hold and then move: a short cool primary while the yeast
multiplies and produces its character, then a rise or a drop for the rest.
Modern ale charts use this shape, for the same reason each time. The first
two or three days set the ester and phenol profile, and the days after that
are attenuation and clean-up, which want a different temperature.
Variants
Where a schedule has two reasonable forms we include both, as with the two
hefeweizen mashes. "Clean ale" and "Clean ale, cold crashed" are the clearest
case. Adding a crash step to the first would change a schedule whose
description says two weeks at one temperature, and a brewer who
bottle-conditions wants the yeast that a crash drops out. Applying a profile
copies its steps, so existing recipes wouldn't change, but the name would
mean something different, and that's worse than having a second name.
The fermentation schedules.
What they're for
A fermentation schedule mostly follows the yeast, so this set doesn't try to cover every beer. It covers the cases where the shape of the schedule matters and there's a common mistake to avoid: holding a Belgian cool, letting a saison stall, crashing a lager before the diacetyl is gone. Each description says which mistake it's for.
The common shape
Six of the eleven hold and then move: a short cool primary while the yeast multiplies and produces its character, then a rise or a drop for the rest. Modern ale charts use this shape, for the same reason each time. The first two or three days set the ester and phenol profile, and the days after that are attenuation and clean-up, which want a different temperature.
Variants
Where a schedule has two reasonable forms we include both, as with the two hefeweizen mashes. "Clean ale" and "Clean ale, cold crashed" are the clearest case. Adding a crash step to the first would change a schedule whose description says two weeks at one temperature, and a brewer who bottle-conditions wants the yeast that a crash drops out. Applying a profile copies its steps, so existing recipes wouldn't change, but the name would mean something different, and that's worse than having a second name.