ThatBreweryGame now features both secondary and bottle conditioning to allow players more control over the quality of their products. Conditioning is not available and does not apply to kit beers.

We'll start with secondary conditioning or racking your beer. The original 24 hour fermentation phase of the brewing process is now divided into 2 major segments. The first 12 hours of the timer are considered primary fermentation, during this time your beer quality will not increase but your alcohol content will slowly rise. After approximtely 12 hours (+/- 5-10 minutes) your beer will automatically be moved into a conditioning period during which time your ABV will not change appreciably but your beer quality will begin to rise. From the period of 12 hours to 18 hours if you check on the status of your brew in progress then you will see an option to 'Rack your Beer'. Doing so will automatically move your beer into a dedicated conditioning tank for that batch. To avoid excess micro-management in the game I do not require you to buy or maintain these extra tanks for conditioning, they are just always available when you need one. The flip side is that I also do not make your primary tank available for another batch right away either. Just as before cleaning does not start on the primary fermentation tank until the full 24 hours has elapsed and your beer has been moved to the next step.

Unlike in real life when racking a beer carelessly can have seriously negative consequences, the game will never punish you for taking this step. The closer you rack the beer to the 12 hour mark the higher a bump in quality that you can obtain. After 18 hours (+/- 5-10 mins again) you will lose the ability to rack your beer and conditioning will continue in the primary fermenter. The quality increase for racking beer is not large and is meant for players who really want to squeeze every last bit of quality out of batch. Players who do not want to baby sit their batches will see no affect on their quality compared to before this method was added to the game.

Now on to bottle conditioning. Bottle conditioning is a great way to take control over your final beer quality in the game. To bottle condition you must first purchase a climate controlled 'conditioning room upgrade' for your brewery using brew dollars. At the garage brewery level this will give you space to store 4 batches, 8 at micro ,and 12 at the full brewery level. Compared to secondary, bottle conditioning can increase your beer quality substantially if you are willing to wait before making your beer available for sale. Bottle conditioning can be done for as long as you like and your beer will never go bad, however almost all of the quality improvements will be realized over 72 hours (3 days). Even leaving your beer for a few addional hours in the conditioning room will increase the final beer quality. Each batch placed in the conditioning room costs you 1 additional yeast plus a few brew dollars for a primer. You must have at least 1 yeast in inventory prior to bottling (2 total for the entire batch) to be eligible for bottle conditioning. If you have unlocked various sweet ingredients then you can try setting the primer to something other than white sugar to see if it has an effect on your final beer quality. Once set your primer choice will be used for all batches sent to the conditioning room until you change it again.