how long until ready to drink

i bottled a hefe and an irish red how long until i should try them

i mean ready

You didn't have some that day??????

Drink one dude it's your beer.

It will be flat but that's ok to, just do not pass it out to friends until it is done.

Hefeweizens are quick. Like maybe three days quick. Keep it warm for a few days then chill it and see for yourself.

oh i always heard like 2 weeks

On this forum I always hear three weeks. After a hundred or so batches I have yet to confirm this fallacy.

so maybe just try one at one week and see how it taste

the reason for people stating to leave beer in the bottle for 3 weeks is so it will properly carbonate.

You will find that many of us have not have our beers carbed in under three weeks, and even if it is "fizzy" it may still taste like crap becasue it is still green.

Various factors come into play...Mostly the Gravity of the Beer and the Temp you are storing it at....

What Conroe fails to mention, is that he does some things unique to many homebrewers, including adding t-58 yeast at bottling time, or Krausening, or bottling a wee bit early, all valid and old techniques, and worth trying as an experienced brewer (I'm planning to thry the T-58 myself soon)....things like that may speed up the process. Now never having tasted his beers, I cannot vouch for whether or not his beer taste green or not in the beginning.

But with normal beers primed like it is mentioned in kit instructions and books, adding around 5 ounces of priming sugars...normal grav beers tend to take 3 weeks to carb if they are stored at 70 degrees....It may be less, but it could very well be more.

BUT, on the other hand, I've had stouts and porters take 4-6 weeks to carb...I have a 1.090 Belgian Strong Dark Ale that is 2.5 months in the bottle and it is barely beginning to carb up, I don't think it will even begin to stop tasting green and like rocket fuel for about another 2-3 months....my early tastes of MY belgian have confirmed that even if it were carbed right not...it tastes like pure unadulturated rocket fuel.

It has to be the roughest and rawest tasting beer I have ever made or tasted....

Methinks Gene Simmons could use it in his mouth falmethrower for their next concert.

Hell during the winter I am lucky if I get ANY BEER to carb up inn 8 weeks, since my loft stays in the low 60 all winter...I wrap them in sleeping bags and other things to keep them warm.

I'm just now coming into "ambient temp carbonation season in Revvy's Apartment."

It's been a long cold and very slow carbing season.....I cannot wait.


As you can see a lot of variables come into play here....when dealing with living micro-organisms (the yeasties) nothing is ever set in stone.

Now your Hefe will be finished much faster than your red...you could bottle it as soon as you reach terminal gravity, and it may be drinkable in 1-2 weeks maybe.

The point to remember if it is under three weeks and your beer isn't carbed or taste funny to you...then leaving it alone for a week or more, will more than likely be the cure....under carbed or funky tasting beer in the first 3-8 weeks or so, especially if it is high grav, or your ambient temps are below 60, is perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about.

Read this for more info, on this subject.
Revvy's Blog; Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

And in this thread you will find some interesting stories (including mine) about extreme bottle conditioning, leaving beers we almost dumped alone and finding the surprisingly drinkable, months later.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

Give it a week, try a bottle, if YOU think it is carbed enough, and tastes good to YOU, then it is done.

However, do yourself a favor, and take at least one six pack and stash it away in the back of a closet or something. Revisit this six pack in about 3 months. Then you will get an idea what a little bottle aging can do.

I just opened a Ol' Bill that I bottled Sunday (it's Wednesday now.) Yes it is carbed. No special techniques, just the same Windsor yeast after a three week primary.



The malt flavor will meld and the hop flavor will fade but there are no off flavors. Some more time would do some good but half this batch is getting consumed at my BBQ this weekend. Come over and have some!

how do you tell when the alcohol is ready to drink? Just taste or is there some visible sign?

Experience. You taste it yourself, at every stage. I particularly like to taste the finished (flat) beer that's left over in the bottling bucket after the bottles are filled & capped. This is a kind of "baseline." When I started brewing, I would then taste a bottle a week until I thought the beer was optimum. Now, I generally wait two weeks before tasting one. If you are brewing different gravities and styles of beer, there is no absolute length of time for conditioning. There is also the temperature issue- the most frequent conditioning mistake I've read about (and I did it once, early on) was to put the just-filled & capped bottles where it's too cold. I left a batch in the basement (@ 60F), and they didn't condition much in 3 weeks. I moved them back upstairs, and they carbed and conditioned quickly enough. Make sure your bottled beer spends a few weeks at 70F or above before moving it into a cooler storage area. Again: experience.

Me- I'm ready about halfway through the mash . The beer needs a little longer though !

I let my oktoberfest go for six weeks(3 prime, 3 sec) and it was the best tasting flat beer ever!

My hefe naturally carbs in bottle within a week, but is better after 2 weeks. My Oktoberfest takes 3 weeks to carb in the bottle.