Typical pale ale fermentation time?

[qvantamon]

Ok, I know the answer to this varies a lot, so I'm going to restrict the question to one style - a generic pale ale (with a mainstream yeast, like Notty or US05/S04)

I ask because I made a pale ale (and a light one - OG under 1.040), and after 4 weeks in the primary (I got lazy and decided to skip the secondary) I kegged it, and it still tasted a bit green. Is 4 weeks to (chilled) keg OK, or should I have given it more room temperature time?

I also found that a week in the kegerator improves the beer a lot (happened to my two latest batches). In fact, 4 days in the fridge, and the subtle "green beer" taste I mentioned was almost completely gone. Is cold conditioning supposed to alter the taste of the beer (since the yeast is dormant)? I've seen it being mentioned as improving the looks, but not the taste.

 

[Picobrew]

That green beer taste could be a number of things that time in the kegerator helps. I would bet that you enjoy the beer more when the suspended yeast and proteins fall out a bit and the c02 gets properly dissolved in the beer with time. You must be quickly carbing your beer? The co2 isn't fully dissolved and doesnt taste the same until you give it time.