Question about how long to age a Belgian strong ale and clove flavors...

[allroadCole]

Hello homebrew masters. I brewed up a strong Belgian ale extract brew 6 weeks ago. It sit in the primary for a month, two weeks in the secondary so far.

I tasted it today and the first smell/taste had a very strong sort of black licorice/clove/astringenty flavor (sorry for the all over the board description). But otherwise it tasted pretty good. After two or three sips that strong clove flavor seemed much less noticeable.

I'm wondering will that clove flavor mellow with aging? I have read that you have to age Belgians for a couple months, but I have not read why! How does the flavor change over the months?

Also, I have heard that Belgians made with extract do not turn out very good, and I should not hope for much. I have an empty keg now, if this beer it not going to be very good anyway it is temping to just drink it as is... Waiting for several months to drink a 'meh' beer would be no fun...

Thanks for any feedback and thoughts.

here is the recipe i used:
http://northcornerbrewing.com/post/BELGIAN-STRONG-ALE.aspx

 

[JBmadtown]

I am by no means an expert... I think the aging of Belgian beers is because of the high OG. your recipe has an OG of 1.062 or so. I would think a good 2-3 months would help bring things together.

I brewed a tripel that at 2 months that had the sweet malty backbone and earthy hop taste, but it wasn't melded together. After three months they are like peas and carrots and very enjoyable.

 

[JetSmooth]

I have a golden strong ale that sat in the primary for seven weeks before going into the bottles (traditional corked and caged Belgian bottles, FTW!). I don't have any clove or spicy phenols. Mostly fruits like pears, peaches, and a little apple maybe. But even after being bottled for just one week, those have mellowed slightly. It still has a "bite", which needs to fade somewhat. The carbonation is still very light because of the high alcohol (8.5%) and that will definitely take time.

I don't plan on opening another for at least a month (or three weeks ). In that time, the carbonation should be good and I'll not open the third for another month after that.