What is the shortest amount of time I should wait before trying a bottled beer?

[Nkliph]

Saison, in this case

 

[1977Brewer]

I'm in this for the science, so I cap one and immediately open it. That's too soon. I then chill one at four days to drink on the fifth. Still, too soon. At seven days, I've had quite drinkable results. There are people that advocate a two to thee week conditioning time. Those people aren't drinking my beer though.

 

[brew_ny]

I'm in this for the science, so I cap one and immediately open it.

my thoughts exactly

 

[JonM]

They'll be really good after 5-6 weeks. Some time in August or so you're going to say , "shoot, last one. I wish I had a few more of these." Every beer you drink before they're ready brings that day that much closer.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

It depends on how you have treated your yeast and how healthy it was at bottling time. ABV is also a consideration as a ABV on the higher end of a yeasts tolerance will also take longer to carbonate.

You have to get a feel for your techniques. Maybe you are treating your yeasties right and the beer carbonates in 3 days (like me). Maybe it takes longer. Only one way to find out!

I bottled a 7+% IPA 2 weeks ago tomorrow, and it was ready to go by the following Wednesday, fully carbonated. I could have tried one on Tuesday or even Monday for the "Cask Ale effect" with all the fermentation esters active, but I didn't.

I bottled a Best Bitter last night and it should be ready by Monday. It was brewed two weeks ago this Sunday. Treat your yeast properly, and make sure it has all the nutrients it needs, and keep the temperatures in a safe range and your yeast will reward you!!!

 

[themanc84]

I tried my first home-brew, an American Pale Ale, after 8 days in the bottle and I was a little disappointed. There was a lot of bitter citrus notes present and also some sweetness, which I was happy about. What I was not happy about was some off the off tastes. The beer did not taste like it was fully cleaned up yet. I'm hoping a couple of more weeks in the bottle will improve the beer.

 

[FortMillBrew]

Many, many beers can benefit from some type of aging. That said; if you're desperate to be drinking this one, as stated above wait a week and chill one for 24hrs. If you like it, that's the shortest.

When I get a brew to last me longer than a couple of weeks in my keg I am always amazed at how much more defined and better it is after several weeks in there. Unfortunately this rarely happens, at least for now.

 

[Sailingeric]

For me. I will have one 4 or 5 days in to see how it is carbing and start taking from the new batch a couple weeks in but I have found the longer they sit the better they have been getting. Once you have a pipeline going, the waiting is not so hard and it becomes easier to let them sit and age.

 

[SippinSudz]

7-8 days in bottle before I try one. The taste of the hydrometer readings are good enough until I can get a low carb sample.

I had some bottles of my latest IPA not carbonate nearly as quick as other bottles of the same batch after waiting 2 weeks to carb up. I thought I had a ruined case. Left them alone for another week, 3 weeks in total and they've caught up. These were 355ml too. My 650ml bottles of same batch carbed fully within my normal 2 week period.

 

[lowtones84]

It depends on lots of factors really. If your Original Gravity was not very high and your bottles are in a 70+F area, they could be carbed in 3-5 days honestly. I would give it just a bit more time, say a week-ten days before trying one personally, but it's your beer and you're learning, so you could try one sooner.

 

[RM-MN]

I tried a bottle of a saison I brewed at 3 weeks and nearly dumped the whole batch then. A couple months later is was as if I had brewed an entirely different beer. I'd say don't rush to sample your saison.

 

[jdp]

I always sample one bottle per week for any type of brew, just to see how they're doing. It also reminds me not to drink all of them too soon. Usually after 7 days they taste pretty good, enough to give you an idea how the batch will finish. At 14 they're getting pretty close. After 21 they will usually start rotating into the lineup.

I'm not patient enough to wait 3 weeks for the first taste.

 

[kh54s10]

I have tried some at 2 weeks, never earlier, some have been carbonated and others were still flat. ALL of them have tasted better at 3 weeks or longer. With some styles of beer - MUCH - longer.

Get more beer going and don't try to rush them. Otherwise you risk drinking them all before they even peak in flavor.

 

[AK7007]

Every recipe and technique combination will be different. If you had a process down exactly, (right down to understanding how this particular batch of grains differs from others) you could be brewing something that has no off-flavors, is designed to be fresh, and is bottled while still actively fermenting with 2 points to go (about 2.5 Volumes in a 5.5 gallon batch) - you could have carbonated bottles in a day or two and be drinking. I don't recommend or know that anybody has ever done this, but it's theoretically possible. (I mean, this is basically a stupid bottle bomb version of krausening)

On the other hand, you could have a wild barleywine where you don't really know the FG, accidentally ferment too high, etc - and you better age that for a year or more to get peak beer out of it.

It just depends. For a Saison where everything went perfect, you might be fine after a week. If not, then longer.

 

[cannman]

I tend to bottle a 12 pack in 12oz bottles and the rest in 22oz bottles so that I can have one 12oz 24 hours after the bottling and 24 hours after that, and 24 hours after that etc. by the end of the 12 pack, the rest of the 22oz are good to go.

 

[cannman]

I'm in this for the science, so I cap one and immediately open it.

There's a tee-shirt in here somewhere... :fro:

 

[azazel1024]

I'm in this for the science, so I cap one and immediately open it. That's too soon. I then chill one at four days to drink on the fifth. Still, too soon. At seven days, I've had quite drinkable results. There are people that advocate a two to thee week conditioning time. Those people aren't drinking my beer though.

Based on a lot of impatients and testing. My results are thus. Take them with a grain of beer. I mean, salt.

Pretty much less than 7 days, and it isn't likely you'll be carbed all the way. Less than 5 days and generally it just isn't good. Oh, that doesn't mean it stinks, just that the level of carbonation and some residual sugars aren't where it should be.

I find that fully carbed hits between about 7-10 days for most typical beers, but then probably need a couple of days in the fridge to get it all absorbed up. Bigger beers, like a RIS or barley wine can take 2-4 weeks to fully carb because the yeast is really slow most of the time.

That said, I find most beers improve with a few weeks in the bottle, even if they have reached perfectly carbed status. Depends on the style, gravity, etc. I've had beers that were roughly at their peak at a month (most IPAs), 2 weeks in the fermentor, 2 weeks in the bottle. Peak beer. Throw it all in the fridge and start drinking. I've had RIS and barley wines that hit their peak at 3-4 years, which doesn't mean they weren't good before then.

I generally stick with "sampling" the batch starting at 7 days post bottling. Just making sure that nothing has "gone immediately wrong" during bottling. Also to get a better feeling for what the beer is like carbed up. I tend to just drink a bottle a week of the new batch until I hit about 3-4 weeks post bottling. Then I'll tear in to it.

Tearing is relative though as I usually have 5-7 different beers in the bottle at once.

 

[azazel1024]

I tried a bottle of a saison I brewed at 3 weeks and nearly dumped the whole batch then. A couple months later is was as if I had brewed an entirely different beer. I'd say don't rush to sample your saison.

Interestingly enough, my Saison was similar. My Belgian White IPA too. Only two beers I've had where I tried the first couple of beers between 1-3 weeks where I thought I might have to dump the batch.

Still kept trying one every couple of weeks for maybe 2-3 months and suddenly boths' character started to change a lot in a good way. The overly bitter White IPA settled down (probably a combo of the galaxy with a bit too much corriander and bitter orange). The Saison settled from pepper bomb, to just peppery. At a few weeks that Saison was not pleasant.

At 3 months I took a couple of bottles to my LHBC meeting. 3 of us had brewed with Belle Saison with different recipes. Everyone judged mine the best (and judged it a really great beer).

 

[whovous]

Do young beers improve in the fridge, or is room temp better? I am hoping to beat some chill haze in my APAs, so I put a bunch in to chill after two weeks of carbing. It will be closer to three weeks when I finally drink them. Will the cold week help, or make no difference?

 

[azazel1024]

Do young beers improve in the fridge, or is room temp better? I am hoping to beat some chill haze in my APAs, so I put a bunch in to chill after two weeks of carbing. It will be closer to three weeks when I finally drink them. Will the cold week help, or make no difference?

Room temp. You've got two things going against you in the fridge. First, the yeast is going to be dormant*, so they won't do a thing about things like absorbing fermentation by products. Next, for every 10C you raise or lower the temperature, you double/halve the rate of chemical reactions that "age" the beer. So, no yeast working and if you fridge is at 38F compared to a 68F room temp, you have about 1/3rd the rate of chemical reactions going on.

So if you have a green beer, don't refridgerate it until it has hit a sweet spot. Then by all means, shove the batch in the fridge.

*Yes, the yeast will eventually go completely dormant at room temperature as well, but at 2 weeks, it is unlikely that 100% of the yeast is completely quisecent.

 

[joshesmusica]

i usually end up trying one a week until they're fully carbed and ready to consume the whole batch. but now i have quite the pipeline going, so it's more like at a week and a half, and then they are for sure ready by 3 weeks. I'm treating my yeasties pretty well, carb temps around 70-72, and i would say it's still after about 2 weeks that they're actually fully carbed.
i would never recommend drinking the whole batch after a week, but i will always encourage newer brewers to be trying their beer throughout the entire process. then you'll get to know what you're doing to it a little better, you'll get to learn how flavors develop, and you'll get to know for future brews when a beer has reached it's peak performance.

 

[whovous]

Thanks, that helps. I am going to leave part of the current batch in the fridge anyway, both because it tastes pretty good now, and because I am trying to learn about defeating a chill haze, but I will work hard at leaving the rest out as long as I can stand. I do not yet have a pipeline going, so this won't be easy. As the pipeline develops, I will hopefully get better at playing by the rules.

 

[myelo]

I'm in this for the science, so I cap one and immediately open it. That's too soon.

Heh, me too. Of course being the real scientist that I am, I immediately repeat the experiment a few times to make sure I have a statistically valid sample.

 

[andy6026]

Why even bother putting it in the bottles?

I've had a session with friends just drinking it straight out of secondary.... wasn't even in the fridge. And it still beat any commercial beer we compared it to.

 

[1977Brewer]

Heh, me too. Of course being the real scientist that I am, I immediately repeat the experiment a few times to make sure I have a statistically valid sample.

Tonight makes six days for the current batch. I have three chilled, theyre all gonna die.

 

[1977Brewer]

Why even bother putting it in the bottles?

I've had a session with friends just drinking it straight out of secondary.... wasn't even in the fridge. And it still beat any commercial beer we compared it to.

I drink straight from the bottling bucket due to the inefficient design of spigot fittings. That's almost a whole beer in there.

 

[vincentAlpha]

I like to play and generally have a good pipeline going, I'll pop a top after 24 hours with a quick chill in the freezer for 30 minutes or until cold enough. Is it going to be as good as it gets, no, is it still pretty good beer, generally.

 

[Michael311]

My usual batch yields 24 22oz and 6 12oz. I use the 12's for taste testers and after the first week, I try a 12oz. Most of the time, it's pretty good and an indicator of things to come. All of the time, they get better after each week. I don't get into the 22oz bottles until at least three weeks, depending on how the 12's are tasting.
I also like to give the 22's at least 2-3 days in the fridge once I feel they are aged appropriately. Ideally they're in the fridge for a week before drinking them.
As others have said, each batch is different but generally, a full week is the earliest for me but I always know it's just a tester at that stage. Same with week 2 and week 3.

 

[grrickar]

I'd say 10 days is the ideal time. 5-7 always seems too soon on almost every beer I have brewed, and after 14 most all of my brews were ready. With some that were slow to ferment it took 2.5 weeks to carb up in the bottle.