How long do you wait to drink?

[PaulStat]

Well it's been 10 days since I kegged my first AG and starting to get impatient, I think I should be able to hold out for another couple of weeks but it'll be a struggle. How do you cope.

I suppose this might not be such an issue for those who force carbonate their beer?

[Roger]

Because of my job, I work month on month off, I brew on leave and can drink it the following leave. having said that I find it better to leave them longer. I find my best beers have been 6 months to a year old.

Roger

[Whorst]

I don't believe in aging beers. In saying that, I don't really brew anything over 1.055. I brew, beer ferments, it gets racked into corny with priming sugar and finings, it gets mowed through. Exactly in that order. Personally, I think there's a lot of myth regarding having to sit on a beer for 4-6 weeks before its ready to drink. 2 week max after fermentation, usually 1 week. Below is a pic of Satan's Folly, A beer I brewed for Halloween night. It spent 7 days in the fermenter. This pic is after 4 days in the corny. It's bright, and tastes amazing. Gravity at racking time was 1.012. I added 42.5g of priming sugar along with my gelatin finings. If need be, this beer is ready to go. I let the corny sit out at room temperature for about week, for the yeast to eat up the priming sugar. Then I like to go straight into the fridge to allow the co2 to go into solution. For an English style beer, unless you're brewing rocket fuel, 4-6 weeks to age is way too long, and you're depriving yourself the reward for your efforts.

[Nullsleep]

Well i have just done my first AG as well, but its still in the fermenter, i tend to leave it 2 weeks before i "taste" it.

[Aleman]

I can't answer as I could tick all the options

A running beer (which is a lot of what I brew nowadays) can be being drunk 7 days after pitching the yeast. My Lagers do tend to get a minimum of 6 weeks before I try them. . . My imperial Russian Stout will have a Year in Corny, then a Year in bottle, and will then be drunk . . . I have two bottles of a IRS that I did in 97 that are still waiting to be drunk

[Damfoose]

1 - 2 weeks for me as I have only been brewing a few months, But now the stocks are up I can start leaving things longer ............... yeh right im drinking after 1 - 2 weeks any way as im just to inquisitive as to how it tastes, I cant see a point in having a bad brew sitting in a corny or a barrel when I can get another one brewed and into said corny / barrel.

[jubby]

I have to disagree with Whorst, although I have only brewed 15 all grain brews, all of them have benefited from being left for six weeks.

10 to 15 days primary then rack into the secondary (cask) leave inside for two weeks, then outside. All of my brews have been around 1.040 to 1.052 OG with the exception of my most recent Old Peculiar and Sarah Hughes which are around 1.060, these will be left for xmas (well, most of it anyway)

I have found that the harshness and the over bitterness is lost after five to six weeks in the cask and the beer changes a great deal during this time (for the better) after six weeks, I notice very little change.

The answer is, to brew sh*tloads of beer so that you are not tempted with the younger ones.

[mysterio]

Majority of my beers are around the 1.038 mark, I ferment them then start drinking about 10-12 days after pitching the yeast - they taste great and are best fresh IMO. Wheat beers, currently brewing lots of those, again pretty good 2 weeks after yeast pitch. I find it hard to wait much longer than that, I normally only have two different beers to drink at any one time.

Some beers really do need a bit of age on them. My SNPA clones have really came into their own about 5 weeks in. Porters, stouts etc, I usually notice they taste best a few months in. I'm doing sour beers that take years to be ready. Low gravity bitters though, I can drink those from the fermenter most of the time. Dont listen to anyone when they say how long your beer should be aged, it's your beer and your taste buds as a brewer know when its ready.

[pantsmachine]

As an example i made a hefeweizen the day i got back onshore last month. Tried it after a fortnight from yeast pitching(i think) and it was great. Seems to be a forgiving beer. Tried one of the last bottles of it 2 nights before i went away again and it tasted Fantastic(3 1/2 weeks old), i could genuinely taste the difference and regreted(kind of) blitzing most of it at a party at mine at the 2 week mark. I now like to split my 5 gallon batches into 20+ bottled and 2 gallon in the fridge in a keg being F/C'd. The fridged kegged beer always gets drank first and its fine but many times i have regreted not leaving that keg alone when i got round to popping the top on its final 20 bottled brothers(if this makes sense). I am quite new to this game but even a monkey like me can see the benefit of leaving the beer to condition for a while. If i was really sef controlled i guess 3/4 weeks after bottling/kegging on a typical blonde beer and upwards would be my goal(maybe 5 weeks or so on a stout). In saying that my russian imperial won't be touched for a year at least.

[Matt]

Dont listen to anyone when they say how long your beer should be aged, it's your beer and your taste buds as a brewer know when its ready.

I agree with Myste.

[MartialAnt]

Where's the 'still in the FV' option?

[booldawg]

LOL at MA! Its a time honoured tradition of mine to have 'the last pint from the FV' to reward my tedious bottling sessions. Wait until the bottling stick is 'blowing air' and run it into a pint glass; lovely stuff. I also have a few bottles at various stages throughout the warm week just to make sure its carbonating well.

After these cheeky tasters I like to wait until at 2 weeks in the cold to crack them open. Yes, I'd like to wait for the full period. I find beer doesnt develop a well formed head until at least 2 months in the cold (something to do with the slow release of nitrogen) I also find the beer gets more bitter as time goes by.

[Scooby]

I brew low gravity ales almost exclusively and agree with Whorst and mysterio.

My beers are generally in the cornie 10-15 days after pitching and the first beer
is pulled a day or so after that. I brew for my own consumption and a cornie lasts about
a month, I don't see that much of an improvement in that time to warrant leaving
it longer.

Most of the great beers served in the pubs near me are barely 10 days old.

Big or highly hopped beers are another matter.

[iowalad]

I am in the fresh is best camp.

Another low grav brewer. Although I have been struggling to get my beers to clear - I think it is a calcium issue like Vossy that I just haven't sorted.

[Roger]

An interesting thread. I might be asking the obvious but is it possible that kit/extract beers take longer to mature?
I did my first AG brew on saturday and dropped into the secondary yesterday and it alrady tasted very good. Much better than my previous brews have done at this stage.

I also bottle my beer, do kegged beers mature quicker?

Roger