Maturation

[tubby_shaw]

I was doing some tidying earlier and noticed the dates on my bottle caps which got me thinking.
It would appear that my beers never really get the full maturation time, for example my XLIX brew is nearly finished in the corny and the bottling date according to the bottle caps was 26/1/07.
Hence the poll do your beers get the reccomended maturation time ?
I hopefully have enough maturing now to stop this happening again

[Jim]

In an ideal world, I mature for the correct length of time.

However, when I have a beer famine because I've been to lazy to brew, then I fall into the trap of drinking it too early - though I wouldn't drink it as soon as it cleared. I'd rather buy a few bottles.

[shiny beast]

Most of what I brew is pale and hoppy. I like fresh hop flavours to come through, so most of it gets consumed fairly young. I secondary for about 10 days and then it goes in the corny for 1 to 2 weeks.

[Jim]

Most of what I brew is pale and hoppy. I like fresh hop flavours to come through, so most of it gets consumed fairly young. I secondary for about 10 days and then it goes in the corny for 1 to 2 weeks.

It's interesting that you say that - I was amazed when on a brewery tour to be told that they only conditioned for a couple of weeks, then straight into the cask and over to the pub!

[bitter_dave]

I probably start having the odd small 'curiosity sample' after it has been in the barrel a couple of weeks, but I tend to find that my beer isn't really worth drinking until it's been in the barrel at least a month.* I'm finishing a brew made at the end of December and it has developed beyond recognition. I've come to the conclusion that long maturation times hide a multitude of sins; I have huge amounts of admiration for commercial brewers who can produce excellent beers in two weeks.

* obviously I don't deprive myself of beer though

[shiny beast]

I've worked in Pubs where some of the cask ale has been less than two days old. I'm assuming this has been stored in some sort of maturation tank in the Brewery prior to packaging.

[SteveD]

I tend to start drinking it a bit before full maturation, but not less than 3 weeks in a barrel for 1040-1055 beers which is where most of mine are, and a barrel will last 4 weeks or so depending on how quickly the word gets out. So it does get drunk, having been properly matured, before it's finished.

With breweries, pubs, and maturation time - it's driven by economics. Get it brewed, get it out, get it drunk, get the money.

[maxashton]

The "ales" at the pub i got smashed in on Friday were pissing sour, i swear to god. I don't know if they'd gotten infected or whatnot, but SOMETHING made them taste.... acidy. It wasn't vinegary, but acid. Had to drop back to boddies and guinness.

As a result, i inadvertently consumed a KFC on the way home.

Horrors.

[RabMaxwell]

The "ales" at the pub i got smashed in on Friday were pissing sour, i swear to god. I don't know if they'd gotten infected or whatnot, but SOMETHING made them taste.... acidy. It wasn't vinegary, but acid. Had to drop back to boddies and guinness.

As a result, i inadvertently consumed a KFC on the way home.

Horrors.

They probably don't clean there taps & lines often

[maxashton]

Dirty buggers.
not going in there again unless i can avoid it.

[tribs]

This probably explains why Summer Lightning and GFB at the Cuckoo is much better than the Summer Lightning and GFB at the Bull about 5 miles away.

Definitely. A good pub will order enough stock ahead to allow for decent maturation and a good cellarman knows when to serve the beers. I've noticed at a few beer festivals, particularly in the colder months, that the beers are way too green. In some cases they are flat and you can still taste the priming sugar.

I like to take samples from very early on to monitor and learn the way a beer develops with age.

[Frothy]

Using a corny as a secondary fermentor is a bad idea as it's far too tempting to get drinking

Frothy

[tubby_shaw]

So far from the poll results it would seem that I am not the only one drinking young beer
I would think that the way around this would be to brew bigger batches then the bulk would get adequate maturation.
Unfortunately my gear will only cope with 25 l batches
So I have simply brewed more batches.
This is what I have on the go at the moment,


1, XLIX bitter nearly done.
2, Chim chimney, Chimay red clone. Maturing for Chrimbo
3, Turbo cider
4, IQ mild
5, Heffe Weiss


6, More Turbo cider
7, Dace sac Ale fermenting
8, Cornicopia lager, waiting for an empty corny
There are also various bottles of each beer stored away.
I don't really have an excuse for drinking immature beer any more

[tubby_shaw]

That's the spirit

btw I see an empty barrel on its side in the background...time to get mashing again

Trust you to spot that amongst all the other cr4ap
That one is waiting for the Chimay clone, It's a 2.5 gallon thingy and I am going to split the batch 50/50 between it and bottles

[maxashton]

too much iodine in the turbo cider barrel there mate.
hehe