Drinking Homebrew Young or Early

Indyking said:

What I can tell from experience is that, I tested 3-4 of my recipes for quick production vs. aging and the results varied from slight to way better always in benefit of the aged one...

So, based on my experiments, I would say: aging is not a myth... Anyone else that has not tried the same experiment cannot respond resolve the issue accurately!

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All that says is that your recipes, as brewed by you, are better with age, according to you.

As a counterpoint, I can go down to my local brewpub and get an absolutely delicious, medal-winning recipe, pale ale brewed ~3 weeks ago. Which says that aging is absolutely not necessary.

So what's the difference?

They brew on a dedicated professional brewery system with active control at every stage of the process, and that's closed to the outside environment.

How do you brew? If it's like most of us, it's in a series of coolers, pots, buckets and carboys, with *maybe* ambient temperature control part of the time, and multiple manual transfers of liquid between containers.

If it's not obvious how much more control the brewpub system offers, I don't know what else to say.

tjp68 said:

You invented that out of whole cloth. Pot stir much?

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Meh, go back and read the first page of quotes if you want to see the examples. I'm not going to waste my time multi-quoting the countless examples

remilard said:

I am only one man.

I think a reasonable person would interpret your post #58 as a claim that ryan_sc and I have palates so poor that we mistakenly think we have had a good beer less than 6 weeks old.

Perhaps it is poor communication on your part. Are you saying that you believe me when I say that many of my beers are excellent and in fact peak prior to the 6 week point? I thought you were saying that if I thought that it meant I had failed to try other approaches or that I was incapable of drawing the correct conclusion from my experiments.

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Really, last post here because this already went too far. I'm absolutely sure you are not only a better judge but also a better brewer than I am, based on the info you gave us.

Yet, I don't think you have ever judged 2 versions side by side, one aged (not just bottled for longer periods of time, but truly aged) and one quickly-made version of the same recipe.

To the OP, based on my experience I told: I did actually try that comparison for 3-4 of my recipes and learned that aging makes sense to me. So, not a myth based on my personal experience! That’s it and all of it!

Ciao... have a good evening gentleman!

Indyking said:

Yet, I don't think you have ever judged 2 versions side by side, one aged (not just bottled for longer periods of time, but truly aged) and one quickly-made version of the same recipe.

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Interesting. When presented with my experience which contradicts your world view, you choose to assume I lied? I guess this conversation had no chance of being productive.

Indyking said:

For the record, I never suggested that! Heck, some lagers are even able to score really well in national competitions without even being lagered, did you know that?

What I can tell from experience is that, I tested 3-4 of my recipes for quick production vs. aging and the results varied from slight to way better always in benefit of the aged one...

So, based on my experiments, I would say: aging is not a myth... Anyone else that has not tried the same experiment cannot respond resolve the issue accurately!

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This is by far the most relevant, and unbiased answer yet...while its an opinion(which is what ALL of this is)...its based on experiment. Granted, we've all had experience or experimented one way or the other with young vs aged homebrew, so everyones opinion is valid, and I think thats all the OP wanted, our opinions and experience. Of course a BJCP judge will carry a certain amount of credibility, that should be taken into account. Nonetheless, we are all providing our opinion, and to discount someone elses for any reason, is just silly.

It seems that the OP's question was answered right from the get-go. All he was asking was if there were advantages/disadvantages of aging homebrew, and if anyone drank their beers at 2-3 weeks.

Yes a beer can taste great after just a few weeks, but yes a beer can potentially taste better after a little more aging...but even still, those "green" beers could potentially win medals. Could it be better after a few more weeks? Possibly...and that would be an "advantage" to aging-but the answer is a matter of opinion and will be a case by case scenario.

Its going to depend on the style, it depends on the conditions, it depends if you're bottling...it depends on a lot of things. Just because some beers CAN go from grain to glass in 2 weeks, doesn't mean that aging IS A MYTH. And just because some beers tend to taste even better after aging, doesn't mean aging is NECESSARY. Its all personal preference, and everyone's pallets are different.

I really think everyone has a valid point, in their own respect. No need to bash each others experience and opinions. Let's just be happy and drink beer!!

Chapa, I think you hit it. There is no "catch-all" technique for every single beer. That goes for every aspect of beer brewing, not just the aging length/technique. To assign the same time-line to every single beer is like using the same yeast with every beer, or fermenting at the same temp for every beer, or using the same malt bill and hop schedule with every beer. Every beer recipe/style is different, and the technique to get to "perfection" of that recipe is going to be different, including how long to age.

There is no aging "myth", but it does tend to get boxed into a "one-size-fits-all" sort of situation. Longer isn't always better, and neither is younger. The "myth" is that all beer needs to aged. The other side is the "myth" that most beer can be made quickly.

It's amazing to me how worked up people get discussing how to perform one small aspect of the brewing process. There's different ways to get where we want to be. Can't we all just get along?

I was impatient enough to try my week old ginger brew made with dark malt extract (dry) and honey and a ton of ginger. I just bought a Fizzini bottle carbonator and had to see if it was worth the money. I did the primary ferment in small containers, which I probably won't do again, and siphoned off enough to fill the quart (liter) bottle to see if it would carbonate the beer.
Sure enough, it worked, but it was so cloudy, and tasted very yeasty. It was probably pretty high in alcohol, I only used about 3 gallons to 3 pound of DME and almost an entire container of honey. It wasn't terrible, but time is definitely needed on this one.