how long do you age your beers ?

so I've been kegging my last 6 or 7 batches
but only having three kegs and with the speed that me and my girlfriend and our friends go through them they are usually not lasting much more than 2 or 3 weeks after they are carbed I know some beers like heffes are ready to be consumed early. and barley wines and others need a year or so to age properly. but what is a good time frame i should shoot for ?

ideally i would have a dozen kegs and a big chest freezer to age them in, but alas that isn't happening anytime soon

how long do you all age yours for ?


do you notice a big difference after a certain period of time ?

thanks guys,

~joe

I'm like you, most of the time my beer doesn't last very long once it's been carbonated. The few times that I have let the beer age 2-6 months I was very pleased at how smooth they were.

Depends what it is. Brown ales, or ambers, 6 weeks. Bocks, three months or more. Big Belgians, 4-6 months. It helps if you have a pipeline going.

This is one reason I still use a secondary even though I do a long primary and my beer is clear at that point. It's a lot easier for me to let it age in bulk in the secondary than it is for me to keep my mitts off it once it's actually in a drinkable form.

In general I bottle stuff with an OG over 1.060 and keg stuff that OGs under 1.060.

Bottled stuff over 1.060 I like to leave at least three months on the shelf.

My pipeline is now over 50 gallons, so I can afford to be patient. But I can only fit two kegs in my kegerator, so I have to think before I put some big heavy whatever in a keg and have one of my taps tied up for however long. I tend to keep a pale and an amber on tap with several bottles of selection in the fridge door.

For balanced ales under 1.050OG or so, I don't see much point in aging them much past carbonation. A big IPA with a bunch of hops, yah, some shelf time will smooth it out. OTOH if you want lip peeling, hit it at three weeks.

I am not a certified judge. To my untrained palate OGs over 1.060 and absolutely over 1.080 do better, taste better with a good long rest in secondary before packaging. My 888RIS went about three months in secondary before I bottled and they are holding up well.

I have never tried a beer with an OG under 1.050 aged more than year that I know of. I would imagine under ideal cellar conditions it might be "just as good" as when fresh, but I wouldn't expect it to be dramatically better.

Keep playing with it. I leave my batches under an airlock until the tell me they are ready. Then package and carb, then cellar until I drink them.

I just pulled a very pale ale (OG 1.042) off the serving shelf and put it on the storage shelf with a 08-19-2010 label. I'll get back to you.

uechikid said:

I'm like you, most of the time my beer doesn't last very long once it's been carbonated. The few times that I have let the beer age 2-6 months I was very pleased at how smooth they were.

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Cheers! I just had a porter disappear in five days after it was carbed in bottles. I usually don't get to the whole aging topic.

I have some bottles of stouts that are over a year old that are awesome. Most of mine right now are in the 6 month range BUT - I bottle so it is MUCH easier to age brew.

Yes - there is a BIG difference and most of my friends say my brews start to taste like real beer at around the 4 month mark. Before that mark that are green.

BTW - I start drinking then at the 2 week after bottling, one here one there but I put half the batch away in storage so I can't touch them.

My pipeline is usually dry, so my beers rarely get to age much longer than 2-3 weeks. I am trying to build pipeline up though for the winter so hopefully that changes.

At least with my lagers the rancid egg smell keeps me from trying them too early.

petep1980 said:

At least with my lagers the rancid egg smell keeps me from trying them too early.

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Ha!

Yea, unless I can get a few batches ahead, they usually start disappearing the day after bottling or kegging. somtimes right out of the bottling bucket.

Cider though I manage to age. (most of the time)

petep1980 said:

My pipeline is usually dry, so my beers rarely get to age much longer than 2-3 weeks. I am trying to build pipeline up though for the winter so hopefully that changes.

At least with my lagers the rancid egg smell keeps me from trying them too early.

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that is my approach now. brewing quantity now so I can keep a fair amount and actually taste it months later. It's hard to do when you just have one ready at a time i've noticed

The pipeline is the key. I brewed like a maniac for a while to get a supply.

It is also good for when you go through dry periods where you just can not find the time to brew (I went 3 weeks without a brew day once!!!).

The problem is that a hole in the pipeline is not noticed for 2 months and then . . . it's too late.

I don't have kegging capabilities yet, so I'm just going to keep brewing until i simply run out of space for cases. I have amassed some fifteen cases of empty bottles to fill thusfar. I have a ten gallon stout and 5 gallon nut brown going now. i don't see a break for a little while at least, but when I do i'll be stocked!!!

A suggestion: bottle some portions of your bigger (1.060 and up) batches - say 4 or 6 22oz bottles and put the rest in kegs like you normally do. Put the bottles in a cupboard and forget about them. See if you like the result, I think that you will.

Talloak said:

A suggestion: bottle some portions of your bigger (1.060 and up) batches - say 4 or 6 22oz bottles and put the rest in kegs like you normally do. Put the bottles in a cupboard and forget about them. See if you like the result, I think that you will.

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This is a good idea, I have moved to 8 gallon batches with the thought of kegging 5 gallons and bottling 3 so I can get a stash of bottles to age and have a variety at any given time.

I brewed like mad over the winter, at least by my standards. At one point had 15+ cases of beer in the basement. I drink 1-2 per night after the kiddies are in bed. Right now drinking beer that was brewed in late February/early March.

I've got enough to last until late fall, I'm figuring. Once our groundwater temp drops into the low 60's, I'll start brewing again. The limitation is my immersion chiller - I don't have a pre-chiller so I'm restricted by the incoming water temperature.

Yeah, I know I could fix that easily. But I've got the pipeline built up, plus I'm crazy-busy on the farm in the summer.

Get more kegs and start aging them. You always have to brew as fast as you drink, but with extra kegs, you can at least be drinking better tasting beer. Of course you might have to buy some beer for a bit until you get your pipeline full, or brew fast beers.

Generally I drink my beers between the 2nd and 8th month. But I went on a brewing binge last summer and had about 25 gallons ready to drink. I've whittled my supply down to 5 cases of pints.

Everything I'm drinking right now is at least 1 year old. The Grand Cru, Irish Red, and Lambic are more than 2 years old.

first few batches i started drinking between 2 and 4 weeks in the bottle. Now that i have a pipeline going, i'm getting better at letting stuff sit. I've got a quad and a porter that have been in the closet un-touched for 3 months now, and a brown ale and cider that are around 2 months.

It's definitely easier to keep my hands off the bottles when there are more in the fridge.

As everyone here has mentioned, pipeline is key. I have 21 kegs and I haven't had the opportunity to get them all full (yet) but I manage to keep a steady flow going. I switched to 10 gallon batches on my smaller beers (<1.060) so I always have another keg of something to drink after the first one is gone. This year I'm going to be stoked to have another round of pumpkin ale once my first one is gone. I brewed about 7 times this summer, with the intention of brewing 2 more but time got in the way. Now I have to wait to get back to school to do those last few brews.

I've recently decided on the two IPA's that I'll be doing to keep on tap, probably intermittently... but as I only just finished my first year in my brewing career, I needed that time to dial in on recipes. Try aging for 2 or more months, you'll be glad you did.