How fast can bottles carb up?

[ayoungrad]

Agreed. Barleywine or an imperial stout can take months to years to fully mature.

I do not interpret the 3 week/70 degrees rule to have any relationship to maturation.

It is a guideline for carbonation only.

 

[Rev2010]

Well,like I said,it is maturing,mellowing/mixing the aromas & flavors as well. Not just waiting to carbonate. I feel it's important to stress this. Maturity comes later than carbonation in most cases.

Not saying I disagree with you because I've personally seen the change, but what about all the people that keg and force carb and start drinking their beers only two days later or so? Do you think they all just leave it in the primary that much longer before kegging?


Rev.

 

[unionrdr]

That's been another topic of debate here as well. Although I have read of some keggers giving them a couple weeks to mature under some light pressure. I see many keged brews in the post your pint thread that are cloudy with little head. That tells me there was little aging time. So yes,in that case I still think aging time is still needed. Commercial brewers keep kegs cool for a couple weeks to allow maturation. And the 3 week @ 70F rule isn't just for carbonation,although it is a basic guideline for that as well. Beers aren't properly matured merely because they're carbonated sufficiently. That's def wrong in general. Some wheat beers & light pale ales may be the exception,as I've experienced. But others have prooven to take longer to mature than to carbonate. Keep notes,& after several brews,go back & read them. It's cool to see what things carry over into a pattern of sorts.

 

[TTB-J]

One of the pompous blowhards on this board insists that it takes "a minimum of three weeks at 70˚F", but that theory has been disproven by many of us, myself included. I'm not going to say how long it takes. It depends on the beer itself, the yeast, and the environment it's conditioning in. I will agree that "three weeks at 70˚" is the traditional wisdom, but it's not a hard, fast rule.

Revvy's bottling thread states: "There's no real fixed time that this process occurs." He than states: "For most simple ales, the rule of thumb is 3 weeks @ 70 deg."

I don't know anyone, including him, that "insists" on any "minimum" bottle conditioning time. In fact, I think most experienced homebrewers' mantra is simply "wait longer." Beer not carbed up? Wait longer. Beer tastes weird? Wait longer. Aging can work wonders for beer, especially at the quantities that we are making.

Or not - we don't really care, we're just sharing what has worked for us. If you want to pop off a cap on a week old beer, go right ahead, I can almost guarantee that it won't be great, though. In my experience, it tastes best after about 2-3 weeks at room temperature and 2-3 weeks in the fridge. As always, YMMV.

 

[rhamilton]

Both of my two batches were decently carbed after a week. I think it really depends how fast your yeast get into action.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeast viability is part of it,certainly. Like I've also said,beer is like pit bbq...it's done when it's done. But basic guidelines are an average from past experiences. Good things to know when you're wondering why something's amiss.

 

[Fennis]

unionrdr, I absolutely agree with you as far as allowing the beer to mature goes, even with kegging. I just started to keg, in fact my last batch, a cream ale, was my first kegged batch. Being new to the process, I innocently figured, hey if I pressurize at say 20-25 psi, rock the keg back and forth and force it into the keg, then let it sit for a few days and bring down to serving pressure, it was good to go. Sure, the beer was well carbonated, bubbles throughout, good head with nice lacing, but the taste wasn't quite there--it was way too sweet and had an alcohol taste/kick as if I added vodka or something to it (which I did not). Over the next two weeks, I noticed a big change in the beer. Its now on its third week in the fridge, and its an amazing beer. The flavor mellowed and lost its overly sweet, sugary finish and the slight alcohol burn was gone.

I learned first hand that carbonated beer doesn't mean mature beer, and mine was far from mature after 3 days under carbonation. Even my dad, who is mostly a BMC drinker noticed the significant difference after it sat for two weeks. It was really the first time I've realized that I can make great beer, but I cannot rush the process, even by forcing CO2 into it.

 

[unionrdr]

Just what I've been trying to get across to everyone. Thank you for posting that! Carbonation isn't maturation. Period.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

///smug comment follows///
And I have found that for most of my brews, they cease to improve in flavor after 6 months in the bottle
//end smug comment/////////

 

[unionrdr]

Lolz. The only beer I'd brew that'd last that long would be something 1.065 OG on up...