How long before Kegging?

[brycelarson]

What sort of qualities are you referring to, that you are perceiving get better with age? My know my beer changes with age (for example, a sharp hop bitterness mellows with time, a change I DON'T appreciate), but there really isn't anything that I would classify as "improved".

I've got only a moderate palette - so it's hard to exactly pinpoint. Don't get me wrong, I can tell that a beer is good early. Gravity samples tell me I'm going in the right direction - and when I'm checking carbonation I can tell it's going to settle into quality. Once it's carbed and stable usually the next few weeks in the keg on a younger beer there is a subtle shift. It's something mostly on the malt side - and depending on the beer it's from a few days to a few weeks until it just tastes right. At that point it's normally stable and stays pretty consistent until more extreme aging.

I don't know what the process is - would love to find out so that I can more closely control it.