6 months conditioning mandatory for a stout?

I'm a newb who would like to brew a Guinness like stout to enjoy this winter. I'm an extract w/steeping grains brewer. Looking online a lot of the kits I have found recommend months of conditioning time. I know this only helps the beer but if I were to brew in the next few weeks, is there a recipe anyone could recommend that I can enjoy this winter?

Thanks,

FG12351

It depends on the recipe- but a Guiness clone is a lightweight as far as I'm concerned. Sort of thin bodied, not terribly roasty, and drinkable. It should be ready in 6 weeks normally.

6 months conditioning time sounds like an Imperial Stout to me (although I would probably go 9 months or longer). A normal gravity stout (such as a Guinness clone) should be ready fairly quickly. If you kegged it, it could be ready in less than a month.

It also really depends on if you bottle or keg. Bottling extends the time considerably as it essentially re-activates the yeast. I brewed 10 gallons of Oatmeal Stout not quite a month ago and its already quite good, I keg however so getting a bottle to taste like my kegged stout would take you 6-7 weeks to accomplish the same taste.

For a 1.050 range OG when bottling, I would say in 6 weeks like Yooper said will be tasting nice.

For a normal stout, 6-8 WEEKS more likely....

It really is going to depend on recipe. If you're brewing a true Guinness "Extra or Foreign Extra) it's going to need some time to condition. If you're brewing a Guinness Draught clone then it'll be ready faster. The first stout I did definitely peaked between 4 and 6 months.

I've had my Guinness Draught clone at a month and it wasn't too bad at all. Two weeks in primary and two weeks in keg. With Wyeast Irish Ale and a nice starter it ferments hard for a couple days....usually hits FG in 5 days. That Irish Ale yeast loves it some dark wort.

My first stout I brewed was a dry irish, Primary for 6 weeks, 2 weeks bottle. We drank a few one night to see how they were doing and they were so great we had a party a few days later and drank them up. I wish i would have let them age a bit longer but it was so great that we got carried away.

As for a stout aging 6 months like others have said that sounds more like an Imperial stout, Im working on a clone for "the abyss" based of a few threads Ive seen on here, that bad boy on the other hand is gonna need at least a year before its drinkable if I ever get around to brewing it

I regularly brew O'Flannagain's stout. From grain to glass is ~5 weeks. I've drank it in 3.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/o-flannagain-standard-41072/

Six months seems long for a regular gravity stout.

:cheers:

I drank a sweet stout 1 week after bottling and even though it wasn't that close to the beer I cloned, it wasn't close after a month either. But it's still my favorite home brew. I took a sample before bottling a stout yesterday and I wish I would have kegged it and drank it right away. Bottom Line, try it right away and go from there

fg12351 said:

I'm a newb who would like to brew a Guinness like stout to enjoy this winter. I'm an extract w/steeping grains brewer.

, is there a recipe anyone could recommend that I can enjoy this winter?

Thanks,

FG12351

Click to expand...

Before i got into homebrewing i allmost exclusively drank Guinness.
My first extract kit was a `brewers best` - `milk stout`
I think i used the 1-2-3 method on it
(1-week in primary,2-weeks in secondary,3-weeks bottle conditioning before drinking)
So in under 2 months it tasted great.
However i would now do a month in primary,skip the secondary,then 3 weeks bottling.(not really because i keg now but you get the idea)
I bought at least 4 of these kits before going all grain.Give it a shot.

long aging is more for the big beers. high gravity beers take their sweet old time mellowing out. it's one of the reasons why people like to do combined grist beers. something drinkable now, something to age.

if you're doing a 1.050 or lower brew you could give it the typical amount of conditioning time.

I've done two stouts from Austin Homebrew, The Cannonball Stout and the Belgian Noel.

Both were fantastic, I don't have the willpower to wait six months so I started hitting them after about six weeks. They might have been better at six months, but they were too good to let sit.

Hugh_Jass said:

I regularly brew O'Flannagain's stout. From grain to glass is ~5 weeks. I've drank it in 3.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/o-flannagain-standard-41072/

Six months seems long for a regular gravity stout.

:cheers:

Click to expand...

O'Flannagain's Stout is a great recipe. I just brewed it on August 31 and I'm drinking it already.