Taste changes over time

[WBC]

I have brewed a long time and have always wished I could halt the aging at a point in time because every beer has it's best taste at a given point in time. You have many options and they all have their good and bad points. What I would like to do on this thread is to discuss the ways to make a great beer taste the same as long as possible. My darker beer is not consumed as fast as pale ales or pale lagers and I like to bottle some of my slower moving beers but want it to be the same great taste as long as I can keep it that way.

Filter?
Pasteurize?
Counterpressure fill bottles through a filter at the peak of perfection?

I need ideas here.

 

[BigEd]

I think you have two opposing tasks here. Live beer, that is beer with yeast content like homebrew, will keep longer than sterile-filtered or pasteurized beer. However, because the beer is still alive it will continue to change over time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because almost all beers need a certain amount of time to reach their prime flavor. The trick is to drink the beer during its' peak flavor period, before the flavor begins to degrade. Filtering out the yeast or pasteurizing the beer like commercial breweries do will arrest the flavor of the beer at that point and if stored properly it will keep that flavor for a while but you will have diminished the original flavor of the beer but subjecting it to one of those processes IMO. You would also have to insure that the beer had reached its' peak flavor when so processed. Beer processed in this manner will also change over time but never in a positive way. So how about making less dark beer so it won't age past its' peak flavor period before you drink it or consider trading some to reduce your inventory?

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

What about refrigeration? Since yeast activity is responsible for a lot of flavor changes, could you experiment by chilling down the beer to make the yeast go into dormancy?

 

[WBC]

I keep keg beer at 36 F (Controlled at +/- 1 F). My Schworzbier at 3 months aging is wonderful. I notice it starts to loose those nice dark malt tastes and slight sweetness fades around 4 to 5.5 months depending on alcohol. Once the slight sweetness starts to fade it is going downhill from there.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

The trick is to drink the beer during its' peak flavor period, before the flavor begins to degrade.

I don't think I've ever had one peak and start to decline...seems the last pull on the keg or the last bottle is always the best.

Sounds like WBC needs to drink more.

 

[lynwitte]

I would like to know of a way to "stop" the process as well. I just started brewing about 3 months ago...about 12 under my belt now 10 AG . Anyway I made a blonde ale that i didnt care for to much drinkable but not the type of beer i like. Well i did the homebrew thing and put it away for 2 more months pulled it out last night at my friends and it was awful i ended dumping through about 12 before i just quit opening them. What would make a beer that was drinkable turn so awful in only 2 months?

 

[WBC]

Sounds like WBC needs to drink more.

I know you must be kidding, I get my share but one can only drink so much and I am 66.5 years old now.

I share a lot of it too and that is fun.

 

[WBC]

I would like to know of a way to "stop" the process as well. I just started brewing about 3 months ago...about 12 under my belt now 10 AG . Anyway I made a blonde ale that i didnt care for to much drinkable but not the type of beer i like. Well i did the homebrew thing and put it away for 2 more months pulled it out last night at my friends and it was awful i ended dumping through about 12 before i just quit opening them. What would make a beer that was drinkable turn so awful in only 2 months?

Most likely it had a slight infection that took a while to get going. The big thing to not having this happen is chilling quickly right after the boil and fermenting as cool as the yeast likes. That is why I always push for refrigeration and using a digital controller.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I would like to know of a way to "stop" the process as well. I just started brewing about 3 months ago...about 12 under my belt now 10 AG . Anyway I made a blonde ale that i didnt care for to much drinkable but not the type of beer i like. Well i did the homebrew thing and put it away for 2 more months pulled it out last night at my friends and it was awful i ended dumping through about 12 before i just quit opening them. What would make a beer that was drinkable turn so awful in only 2 months?

Assuming you are using brown bottles and that its not skunked. I would say poor sanitation. Most likely dirty bottles. It could be many things though

 

[david_42]

There isn't any way to stop the aging process. Even at near-freezing temperatures, beer ages. More slowly, but it won't stop. Doesn't matter if there is yeast or not.

 

[Revvy]

I know you must be kidding, I get my share but one can only drink so much and I am 66.5 years old now.

I share a lot of it too and that is fun.

I thought only children added the .5 to their ages...when we got to a certain point (oh say after 30) we didn't NEED to add any more time onto us, to sound older than we were.

Hey, maybe if we filtered, pasturized or took a campdem tablet ourselves...we could halt our own aging process...