Taste-wise, is it too early to keg my stout?

[Brew2Be]

Hi all.

15 days ago I brewed a stout with Nottingham Ale yeast. I am hosting a St. Patricks day-themed party on Sunday so this would be kegged friday night, and was wondering whether it would be ready taste-wise? I have more experience with lower ABV beers with a quicker turnaround time, but I am hoping its roastiness might cover the green flavors. I keg. Below is the stats of the beer:

ABV: 6.6%
O.G: 1.063
F.G: 1.013
IBU: 47
EBC: 80
Yeast: Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast
Irish moss

Grain bill:
62% Maris Otter
19.5% Flaked Barley
6.6% Chocolate Malt
6.6% Roasted Barley
5.3% Dark Muscovado sugar



Thank you in advance for sharing your expertise.

 

[Jag75]

Have you tried it ? If you have a party this weekend I guess you have no choice . Are you putting it on Nitro?

 

[kh54s10]

I have had stouts that were pretty good early on but got better with some age. I had a couple that were pretty harsh early and those became very good with longer aging.

IMO, all stouts are best with a couple months aging. Really big ones peak in flavor after 6 months and stay good for a couple of years.

Seems like you are stuck with your timeline. It will probably be good but not at the peak of the flavor it would get. Not the greatest choice of style for a quick turn around.

 

[Brew2Be]

Have you tried it ? If you have a party this weekend I guess you have no choice . Are you putting it on Nitro?

I did not try it yet. Luckily I didn't promise to be the beer hookup for the party so I can leave it to age longer, I would just have loved to taste it on the occasion. Alternatively I will buy some craft beers for my guests.

I don't have a nitro setup.. Just CO2.

 

[kh54s10]

Carb it up and taste it the day before the party. If it passes, go for it. If it is not something you would be proud to offer, let it age.

 

[Brew2Be]

I have had stouts that were pretty good early on but got better with some age. I had a couple that were pretty harsh early and those became very good with longer aging.

IMO, all stouts are best with a couple months aging. Really big ones peak in flavor after 6 months and stay good for a couple of years.

Seems like you are stuck with your timeline. It will probably be good but not at the peak of the flavor it would get. Not the greatest choice of style for a quick turn around.

I luckily did not promise to have my homebrew ready for the particular event, I would have just loved to surprise my guests. I did not plan it as a quick turnaround beer, I just brewed it and hoped maybe it would be ready. This also means that I can leave it longer, which I probably will. Would it be appropriate to keg after a month or 1.5 months? Since its not big, big. I did a dry irish stout that turned around in 2 weeks and was great, but it was also a lot lower ABV, so it is possible, probably just not at this ABV level / roastiness.

 

[Brew2Be]

Carb it up and taste it the day before the party. If it passes, go for it. If it is not something you would be proud to offer, let it age.

This is actually a great idea. I could just age it in the keg.. Are there any downsides to this?

 

[kh54s10]

Not that I know of. I bottle my big stouts and just leave them in the corner for a few months.

 

[S-Met]

Opinion: if possible, keg today. I know that you can force-carb and serve, but I'd rather take more time to let it balance the carbonic bite.

 

[McKnuckle]

A keg held at serving temp is essentially a small scale version of a maturation or "brite" tank at a brewery. You can put your beer in there as soon as fermentation is done. And if you can't help yourself (and who can?), hook up a tap and taste a little bit every few days to see how it develops.

In general, 3 weeks post-packaging is the magic moment for low-to-middle gravity beers when clarity and flavor blossom. It is not always true, and it is less reliable for stronger or roasty beers, but it is a general expectation I've come to have.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

For Christmas I brewed this http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/11/lets-brew-wednesday-1923-courage-stout.html

I had it from grain to glass, served on cask via a handpump, in 13 days. It went from brewed to completely consumed in 16 days!

I say, keg it, carb it, taste it... and then decide then whether to serve it or let it condition a bit more.

 

[S-Met]

How about a bright idea, why don't you keg the beer but don't serve it until halfway through the night when everybody has had a few too many beers. Then when you serve it they will remember how great it is not that it's a little bit green.