If you had infinite patience...how long to "condition" your beers?

[hafmpty]

If you had the self control to leave your beers until they were at their peak, how long would it take? Say we break it down by gravity & general styles?

OG
1.030-1.040
1.040-1.050
1.050-1.060
1.060-1.070
1.070-1.080
1.080-1.090
1.090+

STYLE
Hop Forward
Malt Forward
Balanced

Assume a 3-week primary fermentation and aging at ~34F in a keg cold conditioning. How would you break these down to be drinking the beers when they are at their best?

 

[Natdavis777]

I notice most of my beers are pretty solid after a week or two in the keg. Even high gravity. Case in point, most breweries dont let their beer sit long. I remember a solid east coast brewer @ NHC 2014 talking about how they turned out award winning lagers in 30 days or less. Obviously equipment has its place. My point is that you dont have to "age" beer much to get it to its "peak" taste.

 

[C-Rider]

pretty much I ferment in primary for 3-4 weeks and then 3 in bottles. That goes for all ale styles. That's jus me.

 

[JonM]

Not to sound like too much of a wise ass, but I let them condition until they're ready.

A lot of it depends on style rather than gravity. A 1.050 hefeweizen is perfect 2-2.5 weeks from brewday. A 1.050 porter might not be ready for a couple months.

Here's the one that blows my mind: I make a 50/50 pilsner/white wheat hefeweizen that's grain to glass in 17 days. I switch the pilsner to Munich, and the white wheat for dark wheat to make a dunkelweizen. Same process, same yeast, same pitching rate, same fermentation temperature, and the dunkelweizen doesn't hit its stride for about 2 months. Weird.

 

[Rhumbline]

I agree with JonM. It seems to be driven more by the style.

Some of my Saisons are ready to drink after a week in the bottle and taper off quickly. Porters and Stouts I age for up to a year.

 

[hafmpty]

I guess part of me wants a baseline. I brew 2.5gal batches so if I "sample" too often I could be missing out on my best beer. I guess some of that comes with experience and brewing the same beers over and over.

 

[Kharnynb]

2-6 weeks primary, depending on style.

2 weeks to 12 months bottle condition, depending on style.

Sadly, so far i've not been patient enough to condition any of my belgian quad clones quite long enough.

 

[Gerry_P]

I usually do 3-4 weeks in the primary. 2-3 weeks in the bottle and most are presentable. I've had a couple that were good enough to give other people after a week, but that's not typical. You'd think the higher the abv the longer it would take, but sometimes that's not the case. I try one after a week, then another at 2 weeks, etc. I made a big barleywine that was drinkable but hot after a couple weeks, and that one's still improving after 6 months. Nothing of mine has lasted longer than that.
On a side note, I was one another forum (which shall remain nameless) a few months ago and mentioned 3 weeks as a general number for bottle conditioning. I thought that was a pretty conservative estimate, but 3 or 4 regulars jumped in my sh*t, saying "No! 4 weeks!" At that point I decided my time might be better spent on another forum.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I do 3-8 weeks primary depending on style, bottle availability and do I feel like bottling. The 6% beer that I let sit for 8 weeks was awesome as was the Belgian IPA (9.5%) and the Barleywine (11%). For me,, 3 weeks seems to be the threshold to better beer. I also do not secondary, even for IPAs. I will just add the dry hops 1 week before I bottle.

 

[Bellybuster]

I brew 15 gallon batches so 3 corny kegs get filled with each brew.
I can tell you with certainty for me that the last keg from a batch is always the best, regardless of recipe. The first keg is always the weakest. I really have no timeline but can say for me that time is golden

 

[Schecter]

As for OGs, I think it's hard to put a flat statement out about how long to age. I believe, like others are saying, that it has a lot more to do with style. For my RIS, I fermented and aged in the primary fermenter for a total of 6 months. I then aged in bottle for an additional 6-8 weeks and it is absolutely delicious. For complex flavors to develop, the alcohol "bite" needs to subside a little. For an RIS, definitely wait 3 months. If you're doing an imperial pale ale that isn't huge on aroma, then drinking it young or aged a month or two wouldn't be a bad idea.

STYLE
Hop Forward- Always early. For my DIPAs, I do 8 day dry hop starting at day 10, cold crash for 2 days, then drink in a week. After 2, I feel its aged appropriately.
Malt Forward- Depends on style.
Balanced- Depends on style.

 

[Beernik]

My opinion, any ales under 1.060 do not need to condition unless you are oaking, smoking, souring, fruiting, or do doing some other funky thing to it. If your medium or low gravity ales need extensive conditioning, you should consider making improvements to your process or recipes.

Ales over 1.060, for me, are style dependent. IIPAs should be fresh. Barleywines need time.

Lagers need more time because they need to lager. But most "traditional" layering schedules are overkill.

 

[C-Rider]

Not to sound like too much of a wise ass, but I let them condition until they're ready.

A lot of it depends on style rather than gravity. A 1.050 hefeweizen is perfect 2-2.5 weeks from brewday. A 1.050 porter might not be ready for a couple months.

Here's the one that blows my mind: I make a 50/50 pilsner/white wheat hefeweizen that's grain to glass in 17 days. I switch the pilsner to Munich, and the white wheat for dark wheat to make a dunkelweizen. Same process, same yeast, same pitching rate, same fermentation temperature, and the dunkelweizen doesn't hit its stride for about 2 months. Weird.

I made a dunkelweizen w/wheat and Munich and didn't like it after 3 weeks in the bottle. Maybe I should try another. They were bottled on Aug 1st.