How long do YOU condition?

So I've read that 3 weeks seems to be a rule of thumb to condition low-mid alcohol homebrews, followed by about 3 days in the fridge. But I've also heard the stories of beers lost in a closet or in a friends fridge for upwards of a year and that these can come out absolutely fantastic (style-depending).

Of course I've also heard that it's completely subjective. But what I'd like to know, is if you were as patient as could possibly want to be, how long after bottling do YOU think it would be absolutely ideal to drink these styles:

Pale Ale
India Pale Ale (and IIPA)
Stout
Lager

I'm very curious to hear people's preferences.

As an ad on, the reason why I ask is because I've had to leave home for 6 weeks but made sure to fill all my bottles before I left. I'm as excited as a school boy to try them when I get home. On my return, this will be the length of time my brews have conditioned (no lagers):

Edwort's Pale Ale: 8 weeks
Pliney the Elder IIPA: 9 weeks
Lemon Pale Ale: 6 weeks
Midnight Stout: 6 weeks

So far I'm enjoying a little bit of time in the bottle on my beers. I've been brewing mainly extract so far and most of them are drinkable once carb'd but are far more enjoyable with at least a few more weeks on them (IMO).

I carb for 3 weeks for my standard ales and will start drinking them socially right away, but I start tearing into them at about 5 weeks and really notice great melding of flavors at 6. My higher gravity Coffee IIPA that I have going will carb for probably 5 weeks and then be good to go right away for my preference. But (not to toot my own horn) if I had a few buddies over, they'd rather I force carb'd it and drink it off the tap right this instant.

I think all those listed will be plenty drinkable when you get back. The only one that I think would be drinkable but do better with more conditioning is the stout, but then again I dont know what your recipe was like.

Most average PA.APA & IPA's are best at about 4-5 weeks in the bottle on average. Stouts & other bigger dark beers can take quite a bit longer not just to carb,but condition the flavors & aromas to where they shine.
Lagers take longer because of the cold brewing temps & the "lagering" of the beer at very cold temps to condition them before bottling. You're looking at a couple months to produce a decent lager.

Is it possible for a beer to bottle condition TOO long? I just remembered I've got a 12 pack of a Milk Oatmeal Stout that I bottled around Christmas sitting in my basement... lol

Pale Ale........................10 days fermenter (including cold crash) plus 2 1/2 weeks bottle, total 4 weeks
India Pale Ale (and IIPA)..........10 days fermenter (incl cold crash) plus 2 1/2 weeks bottle, total 4 weeks
Stout..................10 days fermenter (including cold crash) plus 3-4 weeks bottle total 5-6 weeks
Lager.................first, this is like saying "Ale." There are lots of different lagers. For a typical bock or something........14 days primary, 6 weeks lagering, 3 weeks in bottle, total 11 weeks

I condition my beers for as short a time period as possible. For most ales, that means 3 weeks or less, grain to glass. I find that I prefer very fresh beer. I typically keg my beer as soon as it drops clear, and immediately chill and carbonate it. In the case of higher alcohol or more fully flavored ales, I condition for as long as it takes, sampling about once per week until I'm happy with it. I don't really brew lagers, but I imagine I'd put them on a reasonably fast track as well, while allowing for a conditioning period commensurate with the style and my desired finished flavor profile.

I also find that what most homebrewers call "green beer" is actually flawed beer that contains unwanted, mostly volatile compounds as a result of poor process control. "Green beer" takes more conditioning time to allow for evaporation/breakdown of the unwanted compounds.

Yuri_Rage said:

I condition my beers for as short a time period as possible. For most ales, that means 3 weeks or less, grain to glass. I find that I prefer very fresh beer. I typically keg my beer as soon as it drops clear, and immediately chill and carbonate it. In the case of higher alcohol or more fully flavored ales, I condition for as long as it takes, sampling about once per week until I'm happy with it. I don't really brew lagers, but I imagine I'd put them on a reasonably fast track as well, while allowing for a conditioning period commensurate with the style and my desired finished flavor profile.

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Absolutely. My times would be shorter if I wasn't bottle conditioning where you do have to wait at least 10 days for decent Co2 absorption. This time is unfortunately increased to a solid 3 weeks for lagers that have been, well, lagering.

The commercial standard is 2 weeks for ales, 4 weeks for lagers.

I'm confused by the OP's question ast to whether it means post-bottle condition or pre-bottle condition.

He's asking how long does your beers that he mentions take to carb & condition at room temp before going into the fridge.

unionrdr said:

He's asking how long does your beers that he mentions take to carb & condition at room temp before going into the fridge.

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Okay, but isn't this begging the question because one needs to take the pre-bottle conditioning into account?

I mean if you let something age for several weeks in the fermenter before bottling you don't need to bottle condition much at all whereas if you bottled it young you'll need to bottle condition for quite a while. Right?

Not necessarilly. You still have to give the bers whatever number of weeks they need to carbonate & finish conditioning in the bottle. Although conditioning time taking a bit longer than carbonation in the bottle when bottled asap,beer that's been bulk aged a bit may not take as long to condition. You just have to wait for carbonation mostly. Sometimes even that doesn't hold true.

woozy said:

I mean if you let something age for several weeks in the fermenter before bottling you don't need to bottle condition much at all whereas if you bottled it young you'll need to bottle condition for quite a while. Right?

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The annoying part is that if you let a beer condition for a long time, especially cold condition, you've dropped enough yeast out of suspension that it takes 2 weeks just to get decent carbonation.

I don't think it matters how long the beer has been ageing in the fermenter. Once in the bottle several factors play into how long the beer takes to carbonate. Below 70 degrees for any beer can take longer to carb. If your room temp is 75-80 degrees in the summer your beer can be carbed in 1-2 weeks. The FG of the beer is important to know, higher the gravity the longer it can take. Yeast is another factor. Some beers that need extended ageing in a secondary may take longer to carb in the bottle due to yeast viability. And then there's priming sugar. An uneven distributed amount of sugar may delay or speed up carbonation levels.

So my answer to the OP's question is that it varies. Experience is the only way to know how to make the given situation work in your favor. Some people add heat to their bottles because their room temp is too cold. You just have to work with the environment to ensure proper and timely carbonation. The OP asked about IIPA beers, these are best young so you get maximum hop flavor and aroma. I'd say 2 weeks max in primary then bottle.

Yuri_Rage said:

I condition my beers for as short a time period as possible. For most ales, that means 3 weeks or less, grain to glass. I find that I prefer very fresh beer. I typically keg my beer as soon as it drops clear, and immediately chill and carbonate it. In the case of higher alcohol or more fully flavored ales, I condition for as long as it takes, sampling about once per week until I'm happy with it. I don't really brew lagers, but I imagine I'd put them on a reasonably fast track as well, while allowing for a conditioning period commensurate with the style and my desired finished flavor profile.

I also find that what most homebrewers call "green beer" is actually flawed beer that contains unwanted, mostly volatile compounds as a result of poor process control. "Green beer" takes more conditioning time to allow for evaporation/breakdown of the unwanted compounds.

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I totally agree with Yuri. Very rarely do you taste a truly "green beer". Most of the time, if the beer tastes not-quite-right out of the fermenter, it's due to off-flavors. There are a few beers that taste best with a bit of age- say, barley wines or Russian imperial stouts- but remember the late great Michael Jackson's quote, ""If you see a beer, do it a favor, and drink it. Beer was not meant to age."

woozy said:

Okay, but isn't this begging the question because one needs to take the pre-bottle conditioning into account?

I mean if you let something age for several weeks in the fermenter before bottling you don't need to bottle condition much at all whereas if you bottled it young you'll need to bottle condition for quite a while. Right?

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Well, letting something age makes it older for sure. Usually, I drink my beer as soon as it's carbed up. A properly made beer doesn't need a month in the fermenter and a month in the bottle. It might not hurt the beer, but there is no need. A beer with issues in the process (underpitching of yeast, too warm fermentation temperatures, water chemistry issues) might taste better with some aging as some flaws do fade a bit with age, but normally it's not necessary.

While I agree with Yuri and Yooper I am going to say that since I got a pipe line going I have clearer beer and no ill effects from longer term storage. My pipe line is big enough that it is months before I drink a beer depending on how much I am drinking. Having a large pipe line also means that I am not set on a brew schedule. I do not brew until I have enough empties to bottle a full batch. I might brew twice in one week and not at all for a month but I always have plenty of brew to drink.

A pipe line is a wonderful thing in my book.

So I brewed an Irish spring stout from Austin in march. I was very good after 3 weeks bottle conditioned. So I saved two bottles and cracked one a week ago and I wish I let all of them age that long. Noticeably different flavors also it was a mid abv like 5.5 or something like that. I think aging stouts and porters is the way to go like 2 months or more. That's my 2 cents anyway

varmintman said:

while i agree with yuri and yooper i am going to say that since i got a pipe line going i have clearer beer and no ill effects from longer term storage. My pipe line is big enough that it is months before i drink a beer depending on how much i am drinking. Having a large pipe line also means that i am not set on a brew schedule. I do not brew until i have enough empties to bottle a full batch. I might brew twice in one week and not at all for a month but i always have plenty of brew to drink.

A pipe line is a wonderful thing in my book.

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+1

BansheeRider said:

The OP asked about IIPA beers, these are best young so you get maximum hop flavor and aroma. I'd say 2 weeks max in primary then bottle.

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I've been wondering about this lately. I typically primary my beers for 4 weeks, then bottle, or whatever. But I've been wondering if IPAs would be better on a shorter schedule. Is this "2 weeks max" something like 7-10 days primary + dry hop (either primary or secondary)?

3 weeks at 20degreesC and then at least 2 days (longer is better but 2 days is my minimum) in the fridge before I try the first bottle.

TAK said:

I've been wondering about this lately. I typically primary my beers for 4 weeks, then bottle, or whatever. But I've been wondering if IPAs would be better on a shorter schedule. Is this "2 weeks max" something like 7-10 days primary + dry hop (either primary or secondary)?

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I normally do primary for 14 days and dry hop for 5 because I keg. When bottling you need the extra 2-3 weeks for carbonation, so a shorter primary is necessary as long as you reach FG. When bottling I would do 10 days primary and 5 days dry hop in secondary then bottle.

This thread interests me. I have been brewing for about 5 months now.

I just brewed an ESB with WLP002. I tried it at 9 days in the bottle. It was silky smooth...really lovely. At day 16 in the bottle it got a sharp taste. Not a hot alcohol taste, but it just lost its smoothness.

This has happened to a few of my beers and I am getting a bit frustrated. Does anyone have any advice? TIA

Gold_Robber said:

This thread interests me. I have been brewing for about 5 months now.

I just brewed an ESB with WLP002. I tried it at 9 days in the bottle. It was silky smooth...really lovely. At day 16 in the bottle it got a sharp taste. Not a hot alcohol taste, but it just lost its smoothness.

This has happened to a few of my beers and I am getting a bit frustrated. Does anyone have any advice? TIA

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How long was your primary? Are you sure your beer was at FG before you bottled? Could maybe that one beer you had was infected?

I keep it in the primary 2-3 weeks depending if I dry hop or not. All of those beers reach FG as their 'expected' FG - I brew 3gallon batches, so I cant waste too much wort.

All the beers taste great before day 11 or 12, they just seem to lose that silky smoothness at day 14 or so. I believe that the re introduction of sugar into the wort changes the beer for the worse. This has been my experience anyway.

I'm on a different computer, so this will be my 3rd attempt at a reply.

First off, thanks everyone for chipping into this thread. The results so far have surprised me. Kinda lets me know that perhaps my brewing practices need some serious improvement, since the only two I've done that tasted outstanding right out of the fermenter is the stout and the IIPA. All others were not quite drinkable (even if imagining them carbed). I figured that was simply that they were 'young' rather than off-flavours from poor brewing practices. Since my fermentation temps are well under control, I think my weakest link next must be that I have yet to get a thermometer I can be confident with during mash/sparge. But that's another topic.

Thanks everyone! I'll certainly drop a line to mention how these brews turns out... 6 weeks from now.

I also have a pretty deep pipeline, being I am the only one to drink my beers regularly. I have some beers that sit for months and months before I drink them and others I drink more quickly depending on my mood. I just drank 2 Belgian Ales yesterday that were at least 5 months old in the bottle and they were outstanding. Very clear and finished well. My experience is the longer in the bottle, the better (within reason). I have only been brewing for about 9 months, so my opinion carries less weight than most.

All my beers have been better with age with the exception of a few stinkers that came from some bad extract. I have some low efficiency (first AGs) beers from 4 months ago that are really starting to shine now with some age. I also have another IPA that hasn't even fully carbed yet and it is going on week #3, so I think it is subjective.

BlindFaith said:

I also have a pretty deep pipeline, being I am the only one to drink my beers regularly. I have some beers that sit for months and months before I drink them and others I drink more quickly depending on my mood. I just drank 2 Belgian Ales yesterday that were at least 5 months old in the bottle and they were outstanding. Very clear and finished well. My experience is the longer in the bottle, the better (within reason). I have only been brewing for about 9 months, so my opinion carries less weight than most.

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That's a good point- that some beers get better with age.

Some styles, like Belgian tripels, are much better with some age. Many big roasty beers are better with age, as are styles like barley wine.

Still, most regular ales are really better fresher, when properly made. If off-flavors aren't created in the first place, the beer doesn't need time for them to age out. Most APAs and IPAs and Scottish ales and the like are wonderful at 3-5 weeks old. We did a mild swap a number of years ago where we all brewed a mild, and then swapped them on day 10. That's right- day 10 after brewday, the beer was being consumed. And it was quite good!

It really depends on the style of course- a lower ABV non-complex beer is easily ready by day 10 while a Belgian tripel may not shine until 4-6 months old (or older).

I've only brewed a few batches, only drank the extract ones. But each improved with time, none were really ready before 4 weeks.

My recent batches of Centennial Blonde are carbed and very delicious with just a week in the bottle. That is mainly due to the fact that I am paying better attention to temperatures during the primary ferment and the beers are pretty light.

Having said that, now that my pipeline is established, I am leaving batches in primary for 4 weeks and have months old stuff in the bottle, simply because I haven't gotten around to drinking them yet. Once Quantity is established, you can slow down your brew schedule and really shoot for Quality.

I returned to homebrewing in December after a long hiatus. My first batches of an ESB and a honey ale are still ageing as my rookie temperature control was all over the place (ironic since it was the middle of winter and I could have easily kept my ales cool). They definitely have some off flavors and, while drinkable, they may never be as good as they could have been.

I now have a cream stout in the carboy that has been in primary for 2 weeks and I'll probably leave it there for another three, then bottle age for several months. It had a nice cool ferment, but it has some roast barley in there which will need some time to mellow. I'm sure I'll be sampling this sooner, but my plan was for this to be my 40th birthday beer in December.

TAK said:

I've been wondering about this lately. I typically primary my beers for 4 weeks, then bottle, or whatever. But I've been wondering if IPAs would be better on a shorter schedule. Is this "2 weeks max" something like 7-10 days primary + dry hop (either primary or secondary)?

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your ipa should be done by day 7, then you can dry hop for a week for two weeks total.

i don't think you'll notice a big difference between a 2 week IPA (4 weeks including bottle conditioning) and a 4 week (6 weeks including bottle conditioning) IPA.

what I mean is if you aren't happy with your beers and you're trying to improve them, primary length within reason isn't the first place i'd look.

My first couple of beers, pale ale and an ipa, had 10 and 14 days in primary respectively, 7 days in secondary, and 2 weeks in the bottle before I drank them. My first porter, however, had 14 days primary, 10 day secondary, and I didn't like it until it sat in the fridge for 6 weeks. The flavors really came together at that point.

I recently made a DIPA, and dry-hopped with 4oz of cascade for a week. When I racked into my bottling bucket, the beer had a very green aroma and flavor, and so I left it in the bottling bucket for a week (mainly because I didn't have any bottling caps and had to let the priming sugar ferment out). I'm bottling today and when I pulled the airlock, the beer still has a slight grassy aroma, however the citrus from the cascade hops actually comes through now. So I'll be letting it sit in bottles for 2-3 weeks carbing, and hopefully after it's finished carbing the beer will be green no longer and close to peaking.

I'm a beer drinker, not a collector. I'll let some beers ferment longer (Belgians, sours), but once it's carbed in the keg it's open season for that baby.

Although, right now I've got 10 full kegs in cold storage, so it's getting aged just because I can't drink it fast enough.

Grassy aromas can come from dry hopping too long.

Jarov said:

...I left it in the bottling bucket for a week (mainly because I didn't have any bottling caps and had to let the priming sugar ferment out)...

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Did you add extra priming sugar? If you let all the priming sugar ferment out and didn't add more, you'll have flat beer.

unionrdr said:

Grassy aromas can come from dry hopping too long.

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I've heard that too. I have also heard about people dry hopping a keg and leaving the hops in for a month or longer, until the keg kicks, with no ill effect. I haven't been able to experiment so I don't have any first-hand knowledge... Is it only certain types of hops that do that?

progmac said:

your ipa should be done by day 7, then you can dry hop for a week for two weeks total.

i don't think you'll notice a big difference between a 2 week IPA (4 weeks including bottle conditioning) and a 4 week (6 weeks including bottle conditioning) IPA.

what I mean is if you aren't happy with your beers and you're trying to improve them, primary length within reason isn't the first place i'd look.

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I first started doing my 4 week primaries after reading through all the debate threads about secondary vs longer primary. Now, more than anything, it just makes sense for my pipeline. I'm doing another IPA soon, I'll probably push it through faster this time and drink it fresh.

Can you clarify your second paragraph? Do you mean that there won't be a noticeable difference from a yeast-cleanup perspective; thus there's more incentive to get it out of the primary because there will be a noticeable difference from a hop freshness perspective? Or do you mean that there just isn't a noticeable difference at all?

Lots of good stuff on this thread!

I'm a pretty new brewer, but how long do *I* condition? That was the question, right?

The answer is simple. Until I run out of the batch I brewed previously!

With my first ever brew, it was about a week. That was all I could stand before starting to chill and begin drinking it.

Having a little (and just a little) deeper pipeline now, I started to dive into the Cream Ale I'm currently drinking when it had conditioned about two weeks.

With me, it's driven entirely by the depth of my pipeline, at least so far.

Cheers!

boydsbitchinbrews said:

Did you add extra priming sugar? If you let all the priming sugar ferment out and didn't add more, you'll have flat beer.



I've heard that too. I have also heard about people dry hopping a keg and leaving the hops in for a month or longer, until the keg kicks, with no ill effect. I haven't been able to experiment so I don't have any first-hand knowledge... Is it only certain types of hops that do that?

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No,the type of hop usually doesn't matter. Just don't dry hop more than 7-10 days. I usually do 7 days.

Bottle conditioning time is a tough subject as each of us brews differently, each beer has a different recipe, each conditioning happens with different conditions of temperature and temperature stability. I have some bottles of APA beer that I made this past winter that I know I will be disappointed with because the hop aroma will be mostly gone before I finish drinking them while the stout that is nearly a year in the bottles is still improving. A spiced porter that is approaching two years has no spice aroma/flavor but that beer is some of the smoothest I have ever had. I sort of wish I would have drunk more of them when the spice was there but I'm also happy to have such a smooth beer to be sipping on.

One thing to point out that many people seem to almost mention but it never really gets pointed out:

If you dry hop, that flavor will fade with time. Dry hopped beers are better fresh.

TAK said:

Can you clarify your second paragraph? Do you mean that there won't be a noticeable difference from a yeast-cleanup perspective; thus there's more incentive to get it out of the primary because there will be a noticeable difference from a hop freshness perspective? Or do you mean that there just isn't a noticeable difference at all?

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I'm not saying that there is no difference in taste. I think there probably is some difference that could be discerned if you had them side-by-side.

I was suggesting that if a brewer is not happy with the taste of his or her beer, the problem is probably not the length of the primary but rather some other part of the brewing/fermentation process.

This discussion inspired me to look at notes. As an example, I brewed a pale with a lot of hop aroma and flavor on, we'll say, Day 1. I transferred to a secondary on Day 6 and bottled on day 11. I commented that the beer was "good" at day 26 (2 weeks in bottle). I marked day 33 (3 weeks in bottle) as "very good" and retrospectively as the "peak." By day 50 (5 weeks in bottle) I made the note that "hops were starting to fade."

So with that beer at least (I'm researching as I'm writing this), had I waited 4 weeks to bottle instead of 11 days, I would have missed what I described as "the peak" entirely. That beer didn't have any adjuncts or darkish grains. Just 2-row and a bit of wheat.

I accept that the two paragraphs above sort of contradict what I said at the beginning of the post.