Dark beer question.

[Jako]

Why do some say dark beers get better with time? i have noticed my Belgian black changing quite a bit over time. but what make it get "better". any input is welcome.

 

[bradleypariah]

All beer changes over time.
The first major profile to change is the hops. Their floral characteristics fade within weeks. Their bitterness will be gone in a year or two. Also, bottling is a beast of its own. When you bottle, yeast are still alive, and they create an ecosystem of their own, adding alcohol, adding CO2, etc. Those things change the flavor immensely.
Although I won't get into exactly how careful you have to be doing this, I will tell you it is possible to use something like a Sodastream on your beer. Like I said, CAREFUL, but if you taste a beer once, then give it a quick shot of CO2, and let it rest for 15 minutes, then taste it again, the aroma will be transformed so much that you'll think it's a completely different beer.
So, time means not only are some of your ingredients' flavors fading, so the malt will come forward again, but yeast byproducts are multiplying, and your CO2 levels are changing as well.

Since most stouts tout a sweet profile, allowing the hops to subdue means there is going to be a point in time where the balance of hops:malt will be perfect for a particular person's palate. Not everyone will agree! I like imperial stouts with lots of hops. My brother in law likes ambers. His wife likes traditional stouts. Give us each an Imperial Stout, and I'll like it fresh from the brewery. My BIL will like it in a couple months, and his wife won't like it for a year or more. It's all just a matter of opinion.

 

[Jako]

that's what i thought. a few months in this is what i have noticed, the carbonation has gone down thank goodness! turns out i added to much honey hah. it has lost the bitter dark chocolate flavor, and now just has smooth roasty chocolate flavor. the after taste has changed the most almost has a creamy/light taste. oh and the smell before it smelled like yeast and really roasty now its a nice balance "dark malt" smell.

 

[bradleypariah]

Yup. Revvy has a post on here somewhere about the importance of patience. Any time you don't like a batch, the easiest thing we can do as brewers is to wait. Waiting seems to solve 90% of off-flavors. It doesn't mean that waiting will produce the original flavor you intended, but it could go from disgusting to decent, or from "blah" to "wow!"

Unless you find a slimy colony in your beer, never pitch it. Just wait and see what happens.

I have had the opportunity to taste a few very old commercial beers. There's a local store near me that just lets beers collect dust - basically forever. In some cases, the beer gets better. Others, not so much. I tell you what, a three-year-old Anchor Steam tastes a hell of a lot like a ten-year-old Sierra Nevada Celebration. I know that makes no sense, but once all your proteins/hops/adjuncts are dropped out of solution, all you're left with is alcohol and barley juice sitting on a bed of dust.

 

[Lefou]

I bought some Victory Golden Monkey a while back.
It's a strong Belgian tripel, sweet and heavy with spices and hops. I drank two out of six and left the last four to sit for over a year before digging one out during a cold evening.
I was pretty impressed. The spices and flavorings were more up front and the hop bitterness had lessened. A slightly "hot" beer had really improved and balanced out over the course of one year.

On my small setup it's hard to do 5 gallon batches over 1.060. I love German bock and was thinking up a way to brew one for next year.
I love German bock. Did I say that already?

 

[JimRausch]

Of course good/bad, better/worse are all subjective terms. As bradleypariah says in his last paragraph above, what one person thinks is a wonderful change in an aging beer, another would toss because it wasn't what it started out as. Darker beers have more melanoidins which do have a tendency to change over time, so yes I do believe they become more complex with aging.
And lefou- I'm with you. Love me some Bock. And Dopplebock even more.

 

[Calder]

My experience with dark beers is that they get smoother with time, or lose their rough edge. I think the dark grains produce a lot of fine powder-like particles in the beer that take forever to drop; the smaller the particles, the longer it takes to clear.

 

[S-Met]

Beer is so much like wine, but many of us tend to forget. Just because we can go from brew to glass in under 2 weeks doesn't mean that its finished. Some wines are not meant to age while others continue to grow and develop for years. Some wines and ciders have an inverse bell curve tasting profile where they taste good young, mediore for a bit then begin to develop into something amazing. Wait too long or store them in improper conditions and things could drastically change. Beer is much the same.

Like with wine, there are a multitude of factors: base selection, yeast, ferm temp, acidity, residual sugars and proteins. Also storage conditions such as vessel size, temp, uv, humidity, bottle vs keg conditioning all affect development.

Personally, belgian stye dubs, trips, quads and others bigs like barlywine tend to do really well with age.

Ive been kown to buy a bottle, if I really like it, I'll by a case and store it. And repeat over the next few years with the next year releases. Then have a vertical flight night. Stone Double Bastard, Chimay Blue, and North Coast Grand Crew are some of the most fun verticals I've enjoyed.

 

[Jako]

making me thirsty! i am still very new to brewing and always wondered why some say give it some time it will get even better while some would say its beer just drink it.

for me i think i am the boat with give it some time as dark beers go. its a lot of fun to see it change over time. i have a Belgian blueberry wheat beer that has gone off the deep end i just shoved the bottles under the steps in the basement and hope it turns out.

Clader i have noticed the beer get a smooth mouth feel over time also the carbonation has balanced out.