How long do I REALLY need to age my ale?

[Jhardin87]

I'll be the first to admit, I'm impatient. Pretty much as soon as I pitch my yeast, I'm fantasizing about when I can pour that first pint.
I only brew ales because I dont really have a setup for lagers and I typically crack into that first glass about a month after brew day.
For my brown ales and stouts this seems to be good, but I've had a few batches of wheat beer or strawberry blonde ales that seemed to be really getting good around the time I've finished drinking half the batch.
I've seen so many posts and recipes that say I need to be aging my beer for a 1/4 year minimum, but like I said before, I'm impatient
So my question is, how long do I really need to age my beer? Where's the sweet spot?

 

[bracconiere]

if it makes you feel better, i usually ferment at 85f, and can get a beer poured out of a keg in 4-5 days.....lol

 

[Qhrumphf]

If you're bottle conditioning, that'll significantly extend your timeline, but I'm typically ~2 wks grain to glass for most ales and ~4 wks for lagers.

My fastest is cask Mild or Bitter where I'm racking to pin w/ finings after 48 hrs, spiling day 4 and drinking day 5.

If you're bottle conditioning and it's carbed and tastes good at a month, you're golden and there's no reason to change it. That's about the timeline I would expect. 1-2 weeks or so ferment and 2-3 weeks or so to carb.

 

[Sammy86]

My typical turn around time is 28 days for ales and 35 days for lagers.

10-14 days for fermentation and 48 hours cold crash then the lagers lager in the keg for a couple weeks.

I also say it varies by the beer...some styles are better fresh while other need more time to age.

 

[Jhardin87]

I keg now instead of bottle conditioning so I'm looking forward to that faster turnaround time

 

[RPh_Guy]

2-3 weeks or so to carb.

My beers fully bottle carbonate in 2-3 days. I rouse the yeast.

Burst carbonating in a keg takes 2 days maybe?

 

[BruceH]

I keg now instead of bottle conditioning so I'm looking forward to that faster turnaround time

You can spund in keg and your beer will be fully carbonated when it's finished fermenting.

 

[Qhrumphf]

My beers fully bottle carbonate in 2-3 days. I rouse the yeast.

Burst carbonating in a keg takes 2 days maybe?

Do it the easy way (high pressure gas through carb stone, maintain beer at slightly higher than equilibrium for your carb level, and blow off from keg/unitank to maintain that balance, and then when carbed drop the head pressure down to equilibrium), takes like 30 minutes, if that. Easily done in a cornie with a carb stone lid and spunding valve. Added benefit of sparging oxygen out that gets picked up even during closed transfer.

I haven't bottle conditioned anything in ages. A week is usually plenty. But I've had pins carb incredibly fast. I suppose if you rouse and condition warm, a couple days would do it. Very seldom has it taken longer than two weeks.