Aging beer

[itsbs2]

I know that beer aging is a popular argument/discussion but I am having a hard time finding information about it online.

To get us on the right page with verbiage, for the purpose of this post, conditioning is being defined solely as carbonating the beer. Conditioning can take anywhere from 1 day (30 psi force carb+shake) to 3ish weeks (slow bottle carbing).

Then there is aging, which is letting the beer sit after it is conditioned in order to let the flavors come together. This is where I get confused/want to become educated. What exactly is happening in the bottle/keg when the beer is sitting following conditioning?

I ask this because I brew a Rogue Dead Guy semi-clone as one of my house beers and it never fails that the first time I try it (always too soon) I want to spit it out. Beer tastes overly sweet and I can taste the alcohol (heat on mouth) every time. I start running everything that possibly went wrong through my head... did I under-pitch, did my fermentation temp get too high, was my sanitization lacking?? I get sad, go to the fridge and drink a commercial canned beer, and come back to my homebrew a few weeks later, pour a glass and :rockin:.

What is happening in the keg that makes the homebrew change over time? And, why are breweries able to go from brew day to delicious bottled beer/keg in just a few weeks when homebrewers (read: I) can't? Is there anything I can change in my home-brewery to get more in line with commercial breweries?

 

[TasunkaWitko]

What is happening in the keg that makes the homebrew change over time?

Magic!

 

[bobeer]

Depending on the kind of beer I can turn a beer around in 3 weeks or sometimes even shorter. It just comes down to knowing your process and ingredients. My house pale ale I can turn around in just over 2 weeks because I know how the yeast attenuates and I've brewed it several times. I also dry hop in the keg to move things along faster so I don't have to wait on the dry hops to do their thing. I condition/carbonate while dry hopping!

In a nutshell the c02 is conditioning the beer which is why it tastes different/better when the beer has some age on it with c02. High molecular weight proteins also settle out during this stage. Tannin/phenol compounds will bind with the proteins and also settle out, greatly smoothing the taste of the beer. This process can be helped by chilling the beer, very similar to the lagering process. In the case of ales, this process is referred to as Cold Conditioning and probably helps the beer more than just adding c02.

Maybe someone with more of a scientific background can chime in and break it down further.

 

[NSMikeD]

After the initial fermentation, the yeast continues to work. In the initial fermentation yeast produces a lot of by-products - some of which are undesirable - during the conditioning, the yeast goes back and "cleans up" these by products.

For example, yeast produces fusel alcohols that have a solvent-liek taste. Yeast will go back and convert those to the more pleasant fruity esters.

Other compounds produce honey, buttery and green apple flavors which are considered undesirable which the yeast will clean up.

Once the yeast is done it settles out (flocculates) as it clears along with the other items mentioned above. Cold helps this process.

I have not read anything about the CO2 doing the conditioning, but I do know the amount of CO2 does affect taste and mouthfeel.

Finining agents also help precipitation of the proteins, tannins etc which when removed improve taste.