My beer is a wheat beer that has been in the bottle a week. I know wheat beers are meant to drink young,
A lot of brewers don't quite grasp or seem to understand that statement, and it seems to cause confusion. When someone says that a beer is to be consumed young,
it doesn't mean you drink green uncarbed beer it means once it's carbed and coniditoned properly, it won't benefit from extended aging, and it will peak in only a few weeks and some of the qualities will begin to fade.
But it doesn't mean you don't let the beer complete any carbonation and conditioning it needs.
You still have no control over how long it takes for that beer to carb up and the flavors to come together....The carbonation and conditioning process still takes time, and is out of your hands.....the only thing you can control, is how long you want to take to consume the batch after it's ready....that's what is meant by consuming young.
You still need to wait however long the beer needs to be perfect....otherwise you are wasting beer.
You still should wait three weeks minimum (if the beer is average grav and stored above 70 degrees) then chill a couple for a day or two and see how they are.....If it's to your liking in terms of taste and perfectly carbed, then enjoy, if not you still have to wait.
Watch poindexter's video from my bottling blog, and you'll see how carbonation develops over time....that still doesn't factor in if a beer is green or not, where it still may need more time for flavors to develop.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw]time lapse carbonation - YouTube[/ame]
But a beer meant to be consumed young, just really means don't plan on cellaring them for a long time and expect them to still be the same beer you expect, it doesn't mean you drink it flat and green. You still need to wait for the beer to come into it's full fruition.