Can you taste the difference between a short aged lager and a long aged lager?

So I'm getting into brewing lagers because I now have the right equipment to keep the lagers cool. I'm now drinking a Vienna right now that was only lagered 3 weeks. This is kinda short, but this beer tastes good.
I'm wondering to myself If it would taste different if I had lagered it longer, say 2 months?
Can anyone taste the difference? What does the difference taste like?

It really depends on the type of beer, the gravity of the beer, the type of fermentables in it, and any issues that cropped up during brewing and fermentation.

There's really no hard and fast rules, but bigger beers generally need more time to condition, ut just about every beer, will have a window of greeness that it needs to pass through before it is truly ready.

But taste is subjective, plenty of brewers, especially those starting out drink plenty of beer that other's would deem green and enjoy it. It usually only when a brewer is not happy with a taste in their beer, do we then ask how long it has been in the bottle, and usually it turns out that they are drinking really young or "green" beer, and 99% of the time they give their beer a couple more weeks, and come back to us reporting that NOW the beer tastes great.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up and condition, and I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up, but still needed another 6 months to lose the hot alcohol harsness.

More info can be found here....Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

I also have been collecting stories of extreme cases of letting beer age a long time to clear up on some really troublesome brews, to basically stop newer brewers from committing beericide and dumping out beers that are more than likely just green.

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


Hope this helps.

Thanks Revvy. this batch of vienna I kegged so I dont have to worry about the carbonation issue. thanks for the help.

Tmeister said:

Thanks Revvy. this batch of vienna I kegged so I dont have to worry about the carbonation issue. thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

But even kegged beer can need time to condition...that is usually the process that starts after the beer is carbed. You'll fine that most experienced brewers who keg, leave don't gas up their kegs and serve them for about the same amount of time that bottlers need to bottle condition them.

really? I didn't know people who kegged did that. The method I usually use is setting the regulator to 30 psi and leaving it for a few days untill its where I want it. Then il set the psi to the pressure I need with the temp I have to get the carbonation volume I desire. Then I just start drinking. I didn't know its best to wait longer after it has been carbed to condition it further.

I keg and I set my co2 to serving pressure and leave it for 2-3 weeks before pulling my first pint. Never done it any other way so I can't compare though.
Also, I have my first lager in primary now, a schwarzbier. I plan on lagering after fermentation for 6-8 weeks before kegging, then another 2-3 before tapping.