Aging versus Quickly maturing Beers

Title from the Joy of Home Brewing,page 36. I aged my first home brew( an ale) for 2 weeks which is what Charlie says will be ready to bottle. A lot of people told me you need to "condition" my beer for longer, say a month. I would say that my first brew was just as good just bottling after 2 weeks as letting it sit fermenting. As of yet, I have not made a "big" beer which I presume would take longer to ferment out all of the sugars. Give me some your thoughts on this. I'm thinking there is no advantage to letting ales sit in fermenter for any longer than a couple weeks.

A couple of weeks in the fermenter is probably fine for most beers. Aside from the yeast eating all the sugar, there are also some bi-products produced by the yeast that the little beasts will clean up given enough time. I wouldn't go much less than two weeks in fermenter though. Some "bigger" beers will just take some additional time to condition after bottling. They may be carbonated fine after a couple weeks, but you'll notice a definate improvement in flavor if you can leave them in the bottle for an extra couple weeks.

You read Yuri's thread on this?

I really enjoyed it. It has made me think more about the ingredients, the flavor and what I am intending on producing than just racking or letting it sit.

There are times for aging and time for slapping it in a keg and drinking!

chefmike said:

You read Yuri's thread on this?

I really enjoyed it. It has made me think more about the ingredients, the flavor and what I am intending on producing than just racking or letting it sit.

There are times for aging and time for slapping it in a keg and drinking!

Click to expand...

Yeah I just got done reading it and it's really sinking in, most of the brews I do are the simple ones. I believe I will pitch 2 pkgs. of dry yeast to my next batch of stout or pale ale and get ready for a super fermentation to follow. Of course I brew 8 gallons at a time.