I brewed a monster 11% IPA (small batch) and I bottled two days ago. I'm definitely letting it sit for a full month, but was wondering how long I really should let this condition for. Any advice is appreciated.
Triple IPA Conditioning
- Thread starter JJack887
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JJack887
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I don't own a keg. I usually rack to a bottling bucket with full batches and attach a pressure-springed bottling wand to the spigot and fill from that. However, since this batch is small, I racked into another 2gal bucket, and attached a bottling wand to the end of my auto-siphon and bottling directly from the bucket, no spigot (Also what I do for me meads). IBUs were anywhere from 90-100. I've never dry hopped (Don't like opening the fermentor). This is my first IPA, but my pale ale recipe turned out to be my best beer yet back in December.
My experience with big beers like this is that I've needed at least 3-4 weeks after bottling for carbonation to be good, or at least getting close... I have a 10% tripel that took about 4 weeks to carb up. I condition in a corner of my kitchen that keeps them at 70-72. Lower temp would probably take longer.
Since it's an IPA, I would start enjoying them as soon as they're ready to cash in on the freshest hop flavor.
I also wouldn't worry about dry-hopping oxidizing your beer too much. There are tons of brewers who do it with no side effects of oxidation when done carefully. There should be some yeast potentially still active (probably not much though) and some CO2 in suspension in the beer to force out any O2 that has gotten in during dry hopping. At least that is my experience. And I do really appreciate the fresh hop aroma that dry hopping seems to provide.
Monster hopped beer will not keep hop flavor as it ages. Derek is right on when mentioning oxidation. As the beer ages the hop flavor will peak somewhere before 6 weeks (totally depends on your preference so could be longer or shorter). However as you continue to age the beer the hops will start to taste stale. This even happens to professional craft breweries. Buy some bottled massively hopped beer (make sure the bottling date on beer indicates the beer is newly bottled). Taste one (or 5) to verify that it taste awesome. Then age the remaining beer for 12 weeks. The hop flavor will taste very different and in most cases very stale. Some drinkers like the aged hop flavor. Again this is all dependent on you taste preference but I try to consume entirely within 8 weeks. I prefer very fresh beer (hops all muddled together) so I usually start drinking after 7 days of carbing. As the beer ages I can actually taste the hop changes between sessions.
Oh and I keg only now as bottling has more factors to deal with. You will want to purge your bottles with CO2 to slow down the oxidation. So you really still need a tank. Good luck.
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