bottle aging WOW!

[Righlander]

so usually i start drinking my brews at 2 weeks in the bottle but everyone on here was telling me longer so i decided to do a test. tried one every week for three weeks (although i plan to keep them in the bottle 2 months before really saying theyre ready.) tried one after one week in bottle:carb was weak and it had some gross tasting sweetness undrinkable really. tried one after 2 weeks: the weird taste was still there but it was carbed, i didn't enjoy it. today is week 3 put one in the fridge before i went to work. i just got home and cracked it open:Well carbed, the strange taste has died out majorly yet still there slightly. it was actually quite drinkable, i enjoyed it. i intend to leave them in the bottle one more month before i declare them ready. but WOW alot of my brews have had that weird taste, and now it's almost completely died out in my beer. thank god for all you guys on these forums. I'm still going to try just one every week till theyre gone
I love you guys!

 

[histo320]

I always drink on a few hours after bottling just to make sure I didn't make a batch of crap beer. Then one every week (or more if it tastes good). You can really tell the difference in flavor.

 

[pkiller001]

I agree. When I first let them set a few weeks, it made a huge difference. That "weird" taste: is it fruity? almost a bubblegum type flavor? My brews have a touch of that too, and it was particularly pronounced when I would drink from the bottle and kick up the yeast sediment on the bottom of the bottle. When I started decanting the beer off the sediment I noticed another big improvement. If you haven't already, give that a try too. You may find your already great brew is that much better.

 

[Righlander]

I agree. When I first let them set a few weeks, it made a huge difference. That "weird" taste: is it fruity? almost a bubblegum type flavor? My brews have a touch of that too, and it was particularly pronounced when I would drink from the bottle and kick up the yeast sediment on the bottom of the bottle. When I started decanting the beer off the sediment I noticed another big improvement. If you haven't already, give that a try too. You may find your already great brew is that much better.

uh the taste is hard to explain...It's like a molasses dominating sweetness, yeah it is almost fruity. really hard to describe. but my friends have described it as fruity. and I do a careful pour and leave the last inch of beer in the bottle, trying my best not to disturb the sediment. this test is really fun though. the cool thing is in one month (which is when i assume it will be ready) it will be new years eve!!

 

[dontman]

When I first started brewing I would usually try one per week and then move into "production" at week three and start drinking the batch.

Now I start to sample it only after it is in the bottle for at least 3 weeks. I just got tired of drinking those substandard uncarbed beers when I knew how much better it would be at 3 weeks.

I started this hobby with the mantra that "life is too short to drink bad beer" and that applies to my own as well.

 

[pkiller001]

Cheers! sounds like perfect timing...

 

[BigKahuna]

It takes ONE HELL of a backlog of beer to have one every week from each batch. Unless you can live on one beer a week, this process equates to a Basement full of beer.

Cool Right!

 

[pkiller001]

Dontman:
I still haven't been able to resist "checking to see if it's carb'ed yet" at 3-5 days. I just get too excited about each new beer.
Of course, my third attempt is bottle conditioning now, and my fourth is still in primary, so maybe I'll learn my lesson yet...

 

[Grinder12000]

I drink one a week as an education. I like knowing what is happening and think by doing this I will understand certain off flavors and how they develop or dissipate.

I think you can get pretty good at telling what a beer will taste like when you are botteling - sure it will taste a lot different but your brain should be able to add and subtract flavors so you can have a clue.

I just tried a Cream of Three Crops after one week carbing and it's wonderful. Best 1 week old beer I've had.

 

[Righlander]

It takes ONE HELL of a backlog of beer to have one every week from each batch. Unless you can live on one beer a week, this process equates to a Basement full of beer.

Cool Right!

oh totally man. i just wanna do this to gauge the changes in taste per week. I surely won't do this with every batch.

 

[john from dc]

fruitiness is often an indicator of high fermentation temps, which are common for newbies (and for some of us less-than-newbies). remember that if the room is 68 degrees, the fermenter can easily get 5 degrees above that or more. i shoot for having the room at the bottom of the yeast's recommended range for the first week in the fermenter at least.

also i found that i noticed a profound difference in my beers when i put them in the fridge for a few days (or better, a week) before drinking. of course you have to wait until AFTER they're fully carbed, and i usually give them a week or two after that for good measure.

then when you stick them in the fridge all the remaining yeast and proteins and other crap swimming around in there gets crashed to the bottom of the bottle and packs into some nice dense sediment. if you do this, you can leave as little as 1/8 inch of beer in the bottle and still have it taste great!

of course all of this is pretty hard to do when you're just dying to see how the beer came out, so keep that pipeline full and soon you'll have enough homebrew in reserve to let it all age.

 

[dontman]

Dontman:
I still haven't been able to resist "checking to see if it's carb'ed yet" at 3-5 days. I just get too excited about each new beer.
Of course, my third attempt is bottle conditioning now, and my fourth is still in primary, so maybe I'll learn my lesson yet...

Trust me I understand. I've been brewing for 15 years and I still keep an eagle eye on my brew log and as soon one hits three weeks in bottle I get excited and put one in the fridge. In fact sometimes I jump the gun by putting it in the fridge at 19 days and then drinking in the 21st. The excitement does not go away after you have a bunch of batches under your belt. (Otherwise why do it right?)

As long as you don't tell yourself that you are "teaching yourself about off flavors" and doing this as a learning experience. The best way to learn how a beer will taste at full maturity is to drink it at full maturity, not 'add or subtract flavors' in your mind. Besides, for most of us a batch is only 48 or so bottles so if we drink just 4 bottles before it is prime to do so we have basically wasted 10% of the batch. "Life is too short to waste good beer!"

 

[BigKahuna]

I surely won't do this with every batch.

WUSS! :cross:

 

[Malticulous]

Life is too short to not learn the hard way. That is what experience is.

 

[thataintchicken]

truth is, It is style dependent.
Hefe's don't need to age too much... IPA's do.

It is weird.
It is Chaos.

Brew enough so you can try at various stages and learn the craft.

 

[lou2row]

truth is, It is style dependent.
Hefe's don't need to age too much... IPA's do.

It is weird.
It is Chaos.

Brew enough so you can try at various stages and learn the craft.

True dat. Life isn't made of black and white rules; just various shades of gray.

 

[mattmcl]

That's perfect advice. For example, darker beers tend to do better with age, but I do a vanilla bourbon porter that's over 10% ABV and it's best at three weeks.

 

[crystale]

So, as a rule of thumb, after the carbonation is done (approx. 2 weeks in the bottles) is it better to let the beer at room temperature for aging and put it in the fridge a few days before drinking or put in in the fridge and let it there at 50F for aging?

 

[mvcorliss]

The colder you can keep your beer (up to a point) for storage, the better. If you have the room, like a fully refrigerated room(!), you can store all of your beer at 35F and it will keep in great condition for a long time, years even. That's assuming, of course, that all of your sanitization was good.

For the rest of us ... find a place that will keep the beer as cool as we can. Mine stays in my cellar at 60 to 68 depending on the time of year until there is room in my beer fridge. I don't know about you but very few of my batches make it past the 4 or 5 month point before they are all poured and drunk.

 

[Calichusetts]

I wait 7 weeks with my Imperial IPA before I even try it...once you've done a recipe long enough, you'll realize when your beers start to peak.

 

[rico567]

To OP "Righlander." This is pretty much what I started out doing when I began homebrewing. Now I just check on the conditioning after two weeks by drinking a bottle, because I know at my temperatures it won't be ready before then...and then a bottle a week until I know it's good to go.

 

[Krazykripple]

I've got a porter in bottles at the mo that's only just starting to come right after more than a month. up until now it's be under carbed and had this sweetness that's been masking the flavours. i plan to give it a few more weeks while I finish up a witbier. weirdly the wit was ready to go as soon as it was carbed up so i guess it depends on the style

 

[rico567]

I've got a porter in bottles at the mo that's only just starting to come right after more than a month. up until now it's be under carbed and had this sweetness that's been masking the flavours. i plan to give it a few more weeks while I finish up a witbier. weirdly the wit was ready to go as soon as it was carbed up so i guess it depends on the style

You are correct. I'm too lazy to look up "lazy llama"'s graphic, but it goes something like the bigger (more alcohol) and/or darker the beer, the more time it takes to condition. Hefeweizens and wits condition very rapidly.

 

[beerman0001]

Just make sure to take good notes. Beer is a lot like BBQ its ready when its ready.