Maturation Times

[phill71]

Hi,

I'm keen to understand what is considered to be the optimum time a beer needs in the bottle to reach its best.

Is it just down to alcohol levels, or do different beer styles mature and hit their 'best' at different rates?

Reason behind this question is simply because I have 3 different all grain beers (chocolate coffee stout 3.9%, Prima Donna Ale 5.3% and Timothy Taylor Landlord 3.8%) bottled and I can't wait to get stuck into them...but I also want to enjoy them at their best.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers

Phill

 

[RobWalker]

it's basically...everything. ingredients, style, abv, everything.

you can safely say anything above 5% will need a decent amount of time to mature.

wheat beers are best drunk at 2 months and degrade after that...

the coffee and chocolate flavours in your stout may need some maturing, but they may not, depending on your taste. they will be somewhat raw at the moment.

landlord, the hops will start to wear off after a while, so if you want fresh hop flavour (goldings aroma etc,) go for 2 months optimum. if you prefer a smoother, well blended pint, anywhere up to 6 is best, at which point it'll go downhill.

my advice - crack a bottle of each. if one tastes great, you have no reason not to drink it now. :

 

[marksa222]

I'm leaving my first beer in the FV for 2 weeks and bottles for 4 weeks, then try one and hopefully be able to tell if it needs a little more time by the taste. I'm brewing at my bro's so I'm not overly tempted to try early as I'd have to drive 20 miles to do it.

I'm basing those times after digesting as much as I can from this and other forums. I'll have a little taste when bottling though and hope it atleast tastes like beer lol. I tried a little from the first hydrometer test and it was very Horlicks'y :nono: lol

 

[rpt]

The rule of thumb I've seen is 1 week for every 10 points of original gravity. So a 1040 ale would need 4 weeks. I've taken this to be the time in the cold after it's had a couple of weeks to carbonate in the bottle or keg. Certainly my Wherry started getting good after 4 weeks (OG about 1042) but it has taken about 8 weeks to get really good. There's a lot to be said for regular tasting to see if this theory works. :