Maturing?

[Kyral210]

Hi

I have 8 litres of Belgium Tripel in the bottle slowly maturing, and the instructions (Brewfern) say it needs 6-8 weeks maturing before I can drink it. However, the instructions are generic across their whole range, and I hear of other Belgium beers like Christmas Beer needing as much as 10 months maturing, and other beers a whole year!

So here is what I want to know:

1. How long do you think my tripel should have before I drink it?
2. How does maturing actually work?

 

[ano]

Rule of thumb is around a week for every 10 points of original gravity, so if your kit started at 1040 you should wait 4 weeks. But I think the triple kit has an OG of around 1075, does that sound right? That being so I'd be tempted to wait for the full two months before sampling.

During maturation yeast continues to metabolise by-products of fermentation which are deleterious to the flavour. Also hop bitterness mellows. Stronger beers take longer to mature. Maturation works quicker in bulk (I think due to the hydrostatic pressure increase but don't know).

 

[jamesb]

Of course, rule of thumb for most of the members of this forum revolves around an 18" straw in the fermentation vessel.

A(space)T doesn't even wait until the yeast is pitched.

 

[Aleman]

1. How long do you think my tripel should have before I drink it?
2. How does maturing actually work?

As Ano said generally 1 week for every 10 points of OG . . . however as you start getting above 1.060 then you should perhaps start thinking in terms of months, and for very big beers (Like my 1.098 Imperial Stout) they can improve for years. . . . I made a batch last September, Kegged it in November and will be bottling it this November for drinking next year .. . . and I fully expect it to continue to improve for 3-5 years beyond that.

Beyond the yeast clearing up after itself there are a whole series of Redox reactions taking place, which require specific rH and pH conditions to take place.