Aging a Porter

I just brewed my first Porter yesterday, and am wondering about aging that I hear people talking about. When I have brewed all my other beers I have typically waited for the gravity stay the same for 2-3 days then I will rack for another 2-7 days. When people are talking about aging a beer it sounds like they are just letting it stay in the secondary for 2-3 weeks. I'm not understanding why this would be done and what my beer is going to gain from doing this? Since I haven't made a porter before I want to try to make taste the best I can and learn about the little things I can do to help me be a better brewer

 

In my opinion time is your friend with a porter. Both in the fermenter and in bottles, as it gives the flavors time to meld together.

Personally, I go 4 - 6 weeks in the fermenter with 4 - 8 weeks in bottles.

I only use a secondary if I am adding something (coffee, oak chips), otherwise I keep it in primary for the whole run.

 

*Shots fired*

JK

I think it is universally acknowledged that malt-forward, roasty beers benefit from some conditioning to let flavors mellow and blend together. This is something that all homebrewers experience at some point and they'll say, "Wow, my last pint from my keg tasted better than the first! I should have let it sit longer."

Hoppy beers loose their aroma and flavor relatively quickly. But malt beers can smooth out.

Exactly how much conditioning time, and at what temperature, and in what vessel, are the main topics of contention.

 

AH that might be why I haven't seen a need in the past. I tend to be a hop head and have brewed as such. Joining a Brew Club and trying something new with the "style of the month" has lead me to try making beers outside my drinking zone.

So it sounds like it will be a good thing to let it sit until a few days before the meeting to keg it. Now I like to rack it so I can get a lot of the trub out and have even less when I cold crash. However with this I am wondering if I should because of the flavor I'm going for. I wanted to give it a nice star anise flavor so it would be like drinking licorice. I boiled 2.5 whole star anise during the last 10 mins and left them in as it started to cool but removed them before transferring. I'm really unsure what they might have done so I didn't want to over power the beer. I can't tell you what the wort truly tasted like because when I scooped them out I used that as my OG sample and I could tell they made it quite strong....

Well time is just going to have to tell I suppose. As I take gravity readings and see how the flavor is coming along I'll just have to decided to rack or not to rack (Alas poor Porter, I knew him)

 

Cold-crash first - you will "free" up more of the beer mixed in with the trub if you do it first.

 

If you bottle it, it ages in the bottle. Saves a step.

If I secondary it's to allow "floaters" and excessive yeast to settle out before bottling so I get potentially clearer beer.

All the Best,
D. White

 

I have always found my dark, dark beers to be best with some aging. I don't use a secondary except in some very rare circumstances-really strong stuff, need to add special stuff, need a fermentor and have no place to go.... I usually will leave stouts & porters in the primary for a month or so, and then bottle. Then I like to cellar (literally, I stick them in my cellar) the bottles for a month or longer. I find that especially in stouts the flavors are much better blended with some time. I also like to hide bottles and find them in 6 months or a year to see how the evolve. IMO time is your friend with dark beers unlike hop bombs.

 

I'll usually leave a stout in the primary fermenter for 3 to 4 weeks and then bottle it. Then I park the bottles out of my way and let it mature in the bottles for anywhere from 3 months to 2 years. I usually find that the peak flavor comes after the 6 month period and that while the beer continues to change it becomes a very slow process. The one that I kept until the end of the second year had not changed flavor so much as changed mouthfeel as it became very smooth.

You may want to revisit your practice of moving your beer out of the primary fermenter so quickly and maybe not move it at all. Some people have done some experimenting and found that there really was no advantage to moving beer out of primary unless it was to separate it from large amounts of hops but even then they would leave the beer much longer than the 2 to 3 days you are reporting.

 

No no no, I let it ferment in the primary for a week and then take a gravity reading daily for the next 2-3 days. If it hasn't moved in that time then I rack it for few more days then cold crash it