Do malty ales take longer to condition?

[MrBJones]

Last year in August I brewed an Irish Red Ale; after several weeks in bottle it was just ok, with a bit of a bite on the finish, so I pretty much gave up on it. But after months of being ignored I tried one again... and it's delicious! Now I have a porter that was bottled mid-December... it tastes good but has that bite. And a Scottish ale, only bottled three weeks ago has it. So it seems they stay "green" longer than less malty ales I've done. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

 

[waldoar15]

For me, beers with any sort of roasted darker malts taste much better (well rounded, blended, whatever) after a few months of ageing. My ESB is good 2 months after brewday, but it's great at 4 months. Same with some of the Alts I've made.

I guess I'm just not a fan of young beers made with darker malt.

 

[RM-MN]

Your red ale matured. Beers mature at different rates with the lightest session ales being ready nearly immediately and the barleywine taking the longest. The rest are in between somewhere with color and increasing alcohol content being the key.

That's a bit different from what I think of as green. To me that means they have a noticeable amount of acetaldehyde, the green apple flavor. The yeast usually make that go away even before the beer is mature.

 

[mj1angier]

Yeah, I go with light and hoppy= drink faster. Dark/ malty= forget about it as long as you can, lol

 

[Lefou]

Yeah, I go with light and hoppy= drink faster. Dark/ malty= forget about it as long as you can, lol

Low gravity, low SRM ales can have a short life for various reasons, but there are some nice exceptions.
Some strong ales like Belgian tripels can be aged for a while. I got some commercial Victory Golden Monkey and held onto that for just over a year. What a difference it made in taste and aroma. The hops mellowed, losing most of the lemongrass impression the younger beer had. What the Monkey lost in hop flavor, it gained with vanilla, but one bottle would still kick your ass on an empty belly.

 

[Lefou]

I guess I'm just not a fan of young beers made with darker malt.

Me, too. They have to age some.
I do primarily light SRM beers because my water and tastes run to the style, but I will drink a good dark brew like Yards Gen. Washington's Porter (liquid courage!) and Founders stouts. When served warm and cold they are very different beers.
I love the smell and taste of Founders at room temperature. It will display a nice foam stand when poured at room temps, but when chilled, it looks like flat used motor oil.

 

[mattdee1]

I know the general wisdom is that, for similar ABV, lighter colored ales are supposed to be ready sooner than darker ales but in my experience it's not always true.

For example, I have an ESB on tap that I brewed 2 weeks ago today, and the sample I tried yesterday was fantastic. In fact, I could have happily pulled several more pints, but I stopped myself because I don't want to drain too much too early. In comparison, the blonde ale in an adjacent tap is finally starting to really taste great, and it's a few weeks older than the ESB. I distinctly recall the 2-week sample I pulled from that tap, where I took a sip and said "blech.... not ready yet."

I think the moral of the story is, all beers are different, and the best thing is to give all of them at least several weeks to blossom. I'm all for stealing early samples just for fun, but try to resist continual pouring until after 4 weeks or so for most beers, with the possible exception being IPAs where you want to enjoy the full power of the fleeting hop aroma.

 

[ESBrewer]

I don't know (or have enough experience), but I feel that beers heavy in everything contain more solutes that are capable to mature to something. Whether it is more pleasant or not would depend on the brew (recipe and style) and the palate of the drinker. Light beers are low in taste compounds so there is not that much to gain anything new. If some new compounds come up, the amount is more likely to remain under taste threshold. Low amount of taste, alcohol and hops also means that it is probably not going to survive as long because these compounds act as preservatives and some of the tasty compounds can break down with time. On the good side, some off flavors may go away with time. But this would really depend more on the brewing process/ingredients which define how much off flavors were produced, rather than the maltiness or the concentration of the beer. So even a light beer can get better if it is full of off flavors initially and you are forced to wait...