when waiting, wait a little more

You will be rewarded. I am now past the month mark since I bottled my stout and it just keeps getting better. I only wish I would have had the patience to wait this long before I started drinking. At 3 weeks they were great, but at almost 5 weeks they are excellent. If i have enough strength I am going to set aside a 6 pack and see how they age for 5 months. The only problem I am seeing is quite a flimsy head, but that really does not affect taste. Some of the bottles have a great head.

Anyways thats just my 2cents.

I honestly think that waiting is the hardest part of the brewing process.

I mean, if there was a God, and he created the earth in 6 days, that seems to be a bit rushed compared to a whole two MONTHS for a decent pint!

If God were a brewer he would be drinking green beer all his life, and it would serve him bloody well right!

The only solution to the waiting problem is to brew a lot to build up that pipeline so you at least have something else to enjoy while your latest batches condition.

+1 on setting aside some of each batch to age.

Having the willpower to leave it alone isn't easy, but is also alleviated by building up a good overall pipeline. I try to set aside a 12 pack of each batch to age. I now have 12 packs of 4 different batches at or near 6 months old. Actually, crazy as it may sound, for one of these batches (an IPA), I still have 3 or 4 bottles of the non-setaside portion of the batch remaining. The remainder of the other 3 of those batches was only recently finished off as well.
The downside to this is that a lot of bottles are required as setting aside 12 from every batch takes a lot of bottles out of normal "circulation".

I've got a 2 year old stout that has aged extremely well. A good number of the bottles don't have the greatest head, but that never bothered me. I'm probably going to catch a lot of flack for this, but I've always thought head was absolutely pointless. Whenever present, all it does is make me wait longer to drink.

phissionkorps said:

I've got a 2 year old stout that has aged extremely well. A good number of the bottles don't have the greatest head, but that never bothered me. I'm probably going to catch a lot of flack for this, but I've always thought head was absolutely pointless. Whenever present, all it does is make me wait longer to drink.

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I like a bit of head (stay out of this, Yooper ) But it's not essential to me. Bitter in southern England is usually served with very little head, and sometimes virtually none. It is a regional thing there. A low head does not always mean poor carbonation. The water is harder in the south also.

A good head releases aroma compounds from the beer. I have a buddy who I've recently converted to the side of head lovers (find me a male head hater ). I poured him up a few of my homebrews with head and he said "That's it! Now I'm pouring my beers. I hate head!". I explained to him that it released volatile compounds from the beer and that he would enjoy them more. But he waved me off.
Now two weeks later he was over again and he said to me, "Can you pour this one for me?" Very important for highly hopped styles methinks (They were IPAs both times), since that's the way the hop aromatics get released from the brew.

For me, I don't particularly care how a beer smells, as long as its within acceptable tolerance. I.e. I don't want it smelling putrid. Personally I dislike hoppy beers, with IPA being my least favorite style I've had by far. I want a beer, not a liquid christmas tree (that's what gin is for).

I have been going hop crazy lately and I love it!!!!