When are brews ready to drink?

[BIGJIM72]

If you use a big load of late or dry hops, the intensity of the flavour peaks then starts to diminish. They can sometimes be at their best after a month in the bottle but less intense after another month.

I agree with the first part of this post wholeheartedly. I made a Galaxy SMASH last year-14 days in primary another 7 for dry hopping. The best bottle flavour wise was from about 4 days after bottling. I found a bottle of this in a cupboard over Christmas-aged 6 months a completely different beer,nice to be sure-but I prefered the green beer.

AG beers do seem to be far easier to drink young compared to kits.

 

[Fore]

Often we mention "after bottling" or "after kegging". I tend to leave mine in secondary for a month, as it helps keep the yeast out of the cornie. Can I presume that the ageing in secondary is identical to keg ageing? So if I drink mine say 4 days after kegging, it's really a 4-5 week aged beer and not a 4 day aged beer?

 

[graysalchemy]

in your opinion, what's a good age for a hoppy IPA or american pale ale styled beer?

Big hoppy, bitter pales are most intense when they are young a few weeks into the bottle, the hops are at their most freshest and are very distinguishable from each other, however they can also be a little harsh especially if you have gone for a high IBU and perhaps not selected your hops to well. However with time things change, they mellow and become more rounded but as a result the hop aroma diminishes. I like mine any time up to about 6-8 months it then starts to deteriorate, still drinkable but past its best and certainly past those first 4-6 weeks when I like it best.

 

since my last post on here i've had a couple more experiences of my own beer and agree, seems best within the first few weeks for flavour, seem to get a smoother body after a couple of weeks, that's extract brews, as for a "kit" i tried along side those that just tasted **** from day one, no doubt in five years it still will do too!