How does beer change as it ages?

I brewed a Northern Brewer Irish Red Ale extract kit a while back. I did 4 weeks in primary, then 3 weeks to bottle condition before I started drinking them. Since then it's been about 4-5 months. I can say that the taste on those beers has improved quite a bit.

One thing I noticed before all of this 'aging,' though, is that the beer had a sort of homemade taste to it. Sort of in the same way that homemade food doesn't have the same taste as what you get at the restaurant. It was good, just different. It seems like that taste is starting to go away, and the beer is starting to have a taste that is more similar to craft brews. Has anyone else had similar experiences? What kind of improvements do you see in a beer as it ages? Has anyone brewed some extract kits that end up tasting as good as or better than a really good craft brew?

Time does make the flavors meld together, smooth out the rough hops notes and such.

You can make excellent brews with extract, but it can be easy to get that "homebrew" flavor due to scorching extract. A lot has to do with quality of the ingredients. I did find an increase in quality when going to partial-mash or all-grain. It is more that the brew can be more customized.

Did your kit use special grains for steeping, or was it straight extract?

My kits used special grains. I think that Northern Brewer uses very fresh extract, and I always take the boil pot off of the stove when adding extract.

arringtonbp said:

My kits used special grains. I think that Northern Brewer uses very fresh extract, and I always take the boil pot off of the stove when adding extract.

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How long do you boil the extract? The longer the sugars are in the boil, the more carmelization and Maillaird reactions that go on, which change the color and flavor of the resulting beer.

broadbill said:

How long do you boil the extract? The longer the sugars are in the boil, the more carmelization and Maillaird reactions that go on, which change the color and flavor of the resulting beer.

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60 minutes.

arringtonbp said:

60 minutes.

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Do a search for late-addition DME....

unionrdr said:

I use both plain DME & LME in my batches. I use half of a 3lb bag of plain DME in a 3G boil for hop additions,the remaining DME & all the LME at flame out. Beer is cleaner tasting & lighter colored with the late extract additions. Particularly the LME,which seems to caramelize easier than DME.

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QFT. Did late malt addition and the color/clarity are already noticeable just during bottling.

Interesting. I'm not sure if I'm after a cleaner taste or not, but I have heard of late addition DME.

Here's one thing I've wondered about. What kinds of taste changes do you see when you use a yeast starter? I.E. What off flavors do stressed out yeast add? What off flavors do very healthy yeast get rid of? etc...