What's your average time in the bottle?

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The Govna

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I've been extract brewing for almost 2 years now. I always use a bucket for primary for about a week and a glass carboy for a secondary for 2 weeks or so, depending on the beer. Then I prime with a corn sugar before I bottle.

My question is, how long do you guys usually expect a brew to be bottled before it is no longer green? I'm super picky about flavor. So, my stouts usually take 6 months to taste really good. I'm drinking a pale ale right now that has been in the bottle almost 4 months and still tastes a bit green. I'm finding that 6 months is about the standard for me for most of my beers. Is this normal?
 
I've found I need to age the high gravity ones, and I just did my first stout so I'll let you know what it tastes like after 3 weeks, but I like most of my beers when they're still pretty young. I kinda like the green flavor, to me it tastes fresh. I also enjoy tasting the brew as that flavor fades. I've only been brewing for 6 months though. The longest I've aged anything is 14 weeks (belgian tripel) and I only have a few bottles of that left.
 
I try to wait 6 months. It was hard to do with the 10 batches. But then I brewed so much I got way ahead of myself...Now it's not so hard to let things sit a little longer. I working on some Ed Wort Pale Ales from December right now....tasty
 
So 6 months is normal? Have you guys ever had anything that is totally ready to drink after 3 weeks? I just can't imagine that!
 
Conditioning time for my beer varies so wildly that I won't even take a stab at an average. I drink it when it's ready. For a simple wheat, that means 3-4 weeks from brewday to first pour. For big imperial brews, the waiting can last a year or more.
 
Conditioning time for my beer varies so wildly that I won't even take a stab at an average. I drink it when it's ready. For a simple wheat, that means 3-4 weeks from brewday to first pour. For big imperial brews, the waiting can last a year or more.


Yuri, those last two sentences rhyme. Did you mean to do that? :D
 
My red ale was good at 4 weeks, as was my wit. My double IPA is reportedly delicious already after just 4 weeks in the bottle. I haven't had one yet, but I will tomorrow. It's more than 100 IBU's and 9.3% ABV! We're definitely going to lay those down for a while. I can't wait to see if it's really good already. My dad (not extremely developed palate) and our neighbor (very well developed palate) both think it's awesome.
 
damn...i leave mine in the bottle for only 2 weeks. i guess my beer sucks. i would go crazy if i had a homebrew sitting in a bottle for 6 months and i didnt pop one open :)
 
See, that just blows my mind. I've never had anything ready in less than like 3 months from bottling date!

Am I doing something wrong?
 
I've gone as little as 2 weeks from brew to drinking and the beer was great. But I am told that is bad so I am going to try and wait longer. My current IPA has been in the bottle a little over a week and was 2 weeks in the bucket and carboy. I am going to try to wait until my birthday (7/12) to open the first one of that batch, that will be over a month. We'll see if I have the stamina!
 
I think IPAs and Hefe's are better early than late. An IPA will start to lose a lot of aroma at 6 months. That being said the longer you can wait the better the beer..for the most part. I have found wheat and hefe are good at 3 months and have little change at 6 months. It is possible that you consider green..bitter? maybe you are not a fan of bitter and like things to smooth out over 6 months? nothing wrong with that at all..but for an IPA or Imperial IPA..at 6 months it starts to lose aroma..so I try to finish those off much sooner..My house stout on the other hand was great at 2 months in keg and at 6 months in keg it lost some of its flavor..it was a light house stout that was so tasty at 2 months..I had one the other day and it was not as fresh..so not as good..(note to self drink stout much faster)..

J
 
Gah, really? I thought that 3 weeks was sufficient! My Ed's Haus has only been in there for like five days and I'm getting antsy already... I'm going to have one at 2 weeks to check on the carbonation (it got cold in Buffalo again :/), but I was planning on 3 weeks before I started drinking them in earnest.

I know that higher abv beers need more time, but six months for everything? Where is the line between 'patiently aging properly' and 'masochist'?
 
If I had to wait 6 mos for every brew I drank, I wouldn't be drinking homebrew for 6 mos. I usually age my standard beers for about 1.5-2mos before drinking. I know they could develop even more, but I have to drink it sometime. If you bottle, the best thing you can do is save some bottles for a longer time, or ration it out over a period of a few months so you can actually taste the changes. Even kegged beer changes in a short period of time. My Lake Walk pale ale tasted good at the beginning and even better when I emptied the keg after about a month.
 
My double IPA is reportedly delicious already after just 4 weeks in the bottle. I haven't had one yet, but I will tomorrow. It's more than 100 IBU's and 9.3% ABV! We're definitely going to lay those down for a while. I can't wait to see if it's really good already. My dad (not extremely developed palate) and our neighbor (very well developed palate) both think it's awesome.

I was shocked at how good this beer is. I'm very curious to see how it ages. Best beer I've made so far. The one thing I would change about the recipe would be to up the flavor hops and dry hop amounts. I can't believe how well it hides the alcohol though. Very well balanced. It does, however, have the same off-aroma described in my red ale. I've got a few new theories on that, but I'll share those in that thread.
 
The way I understand it, there is a "window" where the beer is best, most balanced in carbonation, hopp aroma and bitterness etc...but for the most part in any beer that I've made or consumed the longer it sits the better, but then again, I am also one to be impatient and sample along the way and then when I open that one beer and the first taste makes me say "wow", the rest of the bottles are empty very quickly...which reminds me. it's just about time to make another batch...
 
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