Beer taste curve

[Steven9026]

Been reading post on here from people talking about how time makes a difference on the taste of your beer. It's interesting on how the beer taste curve has worked for me over the years. Most of my beers taste good straight of the kettle. Next comes the transfer to the keg, I taste this and it taste even better, just flat of course. I sample ever other day and it improves in taste and in carbonation. It seems like right around the 4th week it takes a dip in the taste dept. for a couple of days, and then rockets off from there. Sometime the change over night is a noticeable one. The 5 and six week mark are the magic weeks in my opinion, from there on out it gets better as your supply gets smaller.. LOL..

 

[ArcaneXor]

I don't think it's possible to generalize. It depends a lot on beer style and the brewer's process and fermentation control. A Hefeweizen or well-brewed IPA would probably taste better two weeks out than six, whereas a Belgian quad would likely still taste quite harsh at that point. Your best bet to accelerate turn-around times is to produce a really clean wort, pitch an appropriate amount of yeast, and tightly control fermentation temperatures, especially for the first 3-4 days. At the end of fermentation, raise the temps slowly to ambient (but no higher than 75ish degrees), and let it bulk age for a week or three. Then keg, fine, carb, and enjoy.

 

[Hex23]

I agree that it's not possible to generalize the timeline. But I think I have noticed one thing that the OP is saying. I have had beers that I swear taste good at 3 weeks, then take a downturn in taste for a few days, then recover and get much better. It could be a personal taste related to some transformation in the conditioning process. Or maybe there is variation among bottles that is deceiving me.