Beer changes taste over time in the keg?

[billpaustin]

I kegged a Dunkel-Weizen, like a stout wheat beer. It tasted kind of sour, like I had scorched the LME.

But now, after another week or so, it has carbed up and moderated the sour taste.

How much change does a beer go through when kegged? Will it be even better in a few more weeks?

edit: mostly, my good beers don't last very many weeks in the keg.

 

[AndrewD]

In my experience, beer changes significantly in a keg, bottle, etc. If your beer changes for the better as it ages, you're doing it right. I know that as food products cool, certain base flavors are less detectable by taste buds. This is why ice cream and other cold treats are terrible when they are room temp.; because they are loaded with sweeteners to compensate for the target cold temperature. So it goes to reason that if you tasted the beer first at room temp, it's flavor would be different after it cooled. I think carbonation has a similar effect, but that's just a theory of mine. But there's also the "beer magic" that we all know happens as beer ages in it's early stages. This is why we should never throw out a bad beer if it is still young.

 

[SteveM]

Agree with Andrew. Keg, bottle, whatever, your beer is a living product that will change over time. Most often, for the better, sometimes not. The usual rule is that the best bottle of every batch is the last one (though this won't be true for Weizens in general).

 

[Revvy]

Our beers are alive, unlike many commercial mass market beers (NOT ALL OF THE, there are plenty of commerical bottle conditioned beers) which are often filtered and/or pasteurized which kills everything and pretty much stops it where it's at. So our beer goes through an organic process of flavor maturation, and conditioning. That's why many of us begin with the assumption that our beers going to be at it's peak at X week (usually much longer than most impatient new brewers seem to think.) And don't bother touching it til then. That's why you have a pipeline and/ordrink commercial beer as well. And give the beer the time it needs. And it doesn't matter if it's in bottles or kegs, beer can be green or can be conditioned.

 

[BigFloyd]

Oh heck yeah.

I've got an amber ale right now at a bit over a month since racking to the keg. It was pretty good at two weeks on the gas. Now it's excellent.