Aged Beer?

Windaria · 10-18-2005, 04:27 PM

From what I have been reading... it seems like everyone drinks their beer rather quickly, such as within a couple months at the most. As a result, I was wondering if you can (or should, or if there would be any benefit of) aging beer.

For example... I am donig a hard cider right now and I intend to have it in the primary anywhere from 3-4 weeks. Afterward I intend to stick it in a secondary for about 5 months, and age it for several months beyond that in bottles before I start drinking it. At 6 gallons, that should yield somewhere around 27 bottles or so, so that should be pretty decent. I will be following it up with another cider that will go through the same setup and will be started only a few days later, so that at about the same time I will have both coming of age.

Hopefully I'll get a mead and some other stuff going as well.

Anyway... from what I have read, it seems like age will only improve the cider... yet no one seems to age the bear, at least from the posts I have read...

So, is there anyone that ages it? Does it get better with age? What about when it approaches 2 years or more? Or is this simply not something that beer is intended for?

**Walker** · 10-18-2005, 04:34 PM

you can age beer, and may people will tell you that it will definately improve with age. For my strong, dark beers, I TRY to not start drinking them until about 2 to 3 months after brewing them (1 to 2 months ater bottling.)

I'm sure I would love them even more if I let them sit for 6 months or more, but I simply am not that patient. I have a stout in my secondary fermenter right now. It's been there for 2 weeks already, and I'm not bottling it for another week ro so. It will sit in bottles until December, and I hopefully won't open the LAST of the bottles until February.

On another message board I look at from time to time, there is a guy who ages his beers for several YEARS before bottling them, and then for several more months before opening them.

Aging them makes them better.

-walker

El Pistolero · 10-18-2005, 04:37 PM

Some beers do get conditioned for that long...barleywines, imperial stouts, and such. Someone here mentioned their barleywine that won't be ready for years IIRC.

Windaria · 10-18-2005, 04:52 PM

OK... I was just wondering because, while I am still on my first batch in about 9 years, I tend to be a patient sort and am quite willing to wait for an insanely long time, at least a year or so, before I start drinking. I figure if I am starting a batch every month or so, and wait for a year, then it should be fairly easy to maintianm y waiting because, after a year, I will start to have plenty that is drinkable and that becomes drinkable in time.

At least, I can't imagine drinking a bottle a day, so if I get 30 bottles from each 6 gallon batch, or even 27-28, then I should do fine. <smiles>

Or so I hope...

Windaria · 10-18-2005, 04:53 PM

And, if at all possible, when I do try a beer then I would like to age it as well (forgot to mention that).

I do, however, have at least 7-8 other things that I want to try before I even attempt a beer, but it has been fun to research it anyway.

**Walker** · 10-18-2005, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windaria

I am still on my first batch in about 9 years

Man, you started brewing at a young age!

-walker

**david_42** · 10-18-2005, 04:57 PM

Hard ciders generally taste better after 6 months, meads years. Generally, the higher the alcohol content and the darker the ale, the better they do with aging. I make a batch of barley wine every year and put it aside. The one I'm drinking is three years old.

cowain · 10-18-2005, 06:00 PM

I've got a Trippell (the 04.04.04 Epic clone I made from Stone) that is now about a year and a half old. I haven't tasted it in about 5 months but each time I taste it the beer is better.

Windaria · 10-18-2005, 06:19 PM

Yeah... I'm 25 now and I started brewing when I was around 16. Only did a couple batches but it was hard to just outright buy the stuff back then, so what was I to do? Stopped shortly into when I was 17, and haven't even given it a second thought until now.

**Walker** · 10-18-2005, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windaria

Only did a couple batches but it was hard to just outright buy the stuff back then...

What's "the stuff"? Beer or homebrewing gear/ingredients?

It's not illegal to buy any of the gear/ingredients as far as I know, but I can imagine a shop owner giving you a hard time and refusing to sell stuff to you if you were under 21.

-walker