Should I bother trying to age a porter?

I have read a few things about aging beer and they seem to go either one way or the other. I brewed some porter recently and was wondering if I should set a few aside for awhile. Anyone here ever age their beer after they brew it?

Some of my beers have tasted WAY better after aging for a few months while others haven't aged so well.

The 2 beers that I have made that have aged the best are a Pumpkin Ale and a porter. Both were ok at first but fantastic after some aging.

I can recall 2 of my beers that didn't age very well. One was a red rye and the other a milk cream stout which developed a metallic taste after 6 months.

Sorry for the ambiguous answer.

I have yet to brew a beer where the last one out of the keg was the best one. Makes me think that I should age them all longer.

It depends on how long you are talking about aging. A porter should do well with a bit of age on it. The chocolate malts will help it resist oxidation, and the strong raosty flavors will meld together better over time. No need to let it go for more than a couple three months though I would think. Maybe six on the outside.

Is there a flavor component in your recent porter you are unhappy with?

My first brew was a robust honey porter and I had the last bottle about 13 months after brew day. It was fantastic!

unlike IPAs, porters age very well. i like at least 8 weeks from brew day on average gravity porters, stouts, and browns. you wouldn't gain much if anything by long-term aging (9+ months) with standard gravity brews, that is reserved more for the imperials, etc

I hide a bottle so I can taste it long after I had finished its brethren. My latest surprise was a 6-month old dunkelweizen that went clear.

One of my short term goals is to get a porter set aside for winter. I already have the recipe, but it is third in line to be brewed. It is my experience that complex ales such as porter greatly improve with cold conditioning.

progmac said:

unlike IPAs, porters age very well. i like at least 8 weeks from brew day on average gravity porters, stouts, and browns. you wouldn't gain much if anything by long-term aging (9+ months) with standard gravity brews, that is reserved more for the imperials, etc

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+1 to this. Talking about aging is useless unless you are actually talking a specific time-point and a beer in question. Aging a porter for 6 months is not advised, but you want to go at least 6 months on a barleywine.

I have only brewed one porter, but I would say it peaked at around 2 months in the bottle. It really was pretty good right after bottle carbing though. The late cascade addition is starting to fade now. Its sitting at 4 months right now and I'm down to maybe 10 bottles left.

I brewed a porter early jan this year, it was awesome towards the end of Feb. I hid a bomber from myself and recently put it in the fridge to chill for Friday evening when ill open it. I'll post results.

IMO, Aging and cellaring are not the same. When home brewers talk about aging, I think its more about allowing the beer to condition until it's no longer "green", a time frame which depends greatly on how big the beer is. Cellaring on the other hand is a longer time period where an already conditioned beer is set to rest in a controlled environment to allow the flavors in the beer to change.

All homebrews are good candidates for "aging" while only beers with high ABV's such as Barleywines and RIS's are good candidates for cellaring. Beers that have a lot of late hop additions and hence strong hop flavor and aroma(IPA's) are poor candidates for cellaring as the flavor and aroma dissipates quickly(the bittnering additions are also affected by time but at a slower rate than flavor and aroma).

These are the basics I use, that I have picked up on here.

Patience is crucial. In the primary, secondary(if you do that), and in the keg or bottle.

If you are a novice, the beer will take longer to peak because the yeasties will need more time to fix your mistakes.

The bigger the beer, the more time it takes to reach its peak.

If you are impatient buy extra fermenters, kegs/bottles and build a big pipeline. It's silly to put blood, sweat, and tears into brewing and then not allow the beer the time it needs to be all it can be.

FYI I am only 2 for 3 on blood, sweat, and tears for my brewing.

A porter will age well if there's a reason for it. It will get a little more smooth and the malt flavors will blend better but that isn't always what you want. If your porter is hoppy and you want to keep the hoppy flavor and aroma, you do not want to age it for very long as these will go away. If you are adding spices or anything else that fades with time, you either need to age less or increase the spices so it still has the spice flavors after aging. Same goes for adding oak and/or liquor. So the first question you should ask is what you are looking to accomplish by aging and second whether your recipe will improve by aging.

I did the St. Paul Porter extract kit from Northern Brewer a few years ago and kept one bottle that I didn't drink until it was over a year old. It was amazing, I wish I had kept more of them for that long. I would think it depends on the porter, worked well for this recipe.

hogwash said:

I did the St. Paul Porter extract kit from Northern Brewer a few years ago and kept one bottle that I didn't drink until it was over a year old. It was amazing, I wish I had kept more of them for that long. I would think it depends on the porter, worked well for this recipe.

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Seems that the last 6 of so many homebrews are the best ones. Why won't we ever learn to keep our hands off until then?

I have about 12 bottles left of dry stout I made 11 months ago that has aged well. The acrid/acidic notes were a bit strong initially (12oz. chocolate malt, 4oz. black patent malt, and 10oz. roasted barley in a 5.5gal batch), but have mellowed quite nicely. It's very smooth now. Hop bitterness is still there, but I can't detect any flavor or aroma notes anymore.

Zen_Brew said:

It depends on how long you are talking about aging. A porter should do well with a bit of age on it. The chocolate malts will help it resist oxidation, and the strong raosty flavors will meld together better over time. No need to let it go for more than a couple three months though I would think. Maybe six on the outside.

Is there a flavor component in your recent porter you are unhappy with?

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No not really. I'm just enjoying the hell out of them and just want to make sure I'm making the most of them. I bottled them about 9 weeks ago and they keep getting better. I think I'm gonna set a sixer aside in hopes that it will turn out well in a few months. If not than oh well, lesson learned.

MotorcycleMatt said:

I brewed a porter early jan this year, it was awesome towards the end of Feb. I hid a bomber from myself and recently put it in the fridge to chill for Friday evening when ill open it. I'll post results.

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Please do!

I just finished it a while ago. It was still really good, probably a bit better than I remembered. Still nicely carbed, good head and lacing.

I had this sitting at room temps since Febuary, chilled for a couple of weeks. I don't know how much it benefited from aging but it was still fun. It was a 6% alc robust porter btw

totally redundant after all the comments... but

yes, my first brew was a porter that didn't taste so great even after a month in the bottle. i let it sit for ages and picked it up again after 3 or 4 months and it wasnt amazing but was better than when younger. go for it, maybe save some for aging and drink some after a few weeks