When are brews ready to drink?

[Titch]

silly question but

some kits say after 4 weeks
coopers now say 12weeks

all grains?

so is there a rule of thumb say

bitters better after 4 weeks
wheats better after x weeks
lager better after y weeks


any clues chaps?

 

[Dunfie]

The rule of thumb to is allow 1 week per 10 gravity points for maturation. So for a beer with an OG of 1040 you would allow to mature for 4 weeks after primary fermentation, 1070 you would allow 7 weeks and so on.

However I normally go with the rule that says - if its good enough its old enough!

 

[abeyptfc]

obviously all brew improve with age, as far as im aware only the coopers euro lager says to wait 12 weeks and that is probably about right going by my attempt. for most brews like coopers real ale/cnadian blonde/cerveza/draught/real ale I would give it at least 4 weeks in the bottle, if you can wait 6 then even better. In saying that many people have started drinking their brews after a week or two and its nice but gets better.

 

[evanvine]

Regular QA will tell you.

 

[PureGuiness]

The 1wk per 10 points of OG is probably just about right for most beers but I would say that AG is ready to drink earlier than most kit beers.

Also most green AG beer is more drinkable than green kit beer.

And at the end of the day, if you brew enough to build up a rolling stock then it's probably not so much of a problem... unless like me your favourite brew is the last one you made

 

that and a lack of patience for me!!

my first proper attempt at brewing beer is now 4 weeks past being bottled(OG was 1.050) and its tasting good. second went into bottles a week ago and i'm dying to try it!

trick i've found is to bottle a few smaller clear glass bottles (300ml "lager size bottles) you can watch them clear easily and try one each week to see how its going, that way your not wasting a full 500ml everytime you loose your pateince

i've found that the end result varies with time and each beer will vary in how long it takes to get there, if you try it and you like it, drink it (responsibly of course ) :

 

[pittsy]

2 weeks in the keg and it's lovely if it's a wheat beer :drink:

 

[supersteve]

that and a lack of patience for me!!

my first proper attempt at brewing beer is now 4 weeks past being bottled(OG was 1.050) and its tasting good. second went into bottles a week ago and i'm dying to try it!

trick i've found is to bottle a few smaller clear glass bottles (300ml "lager size bottles) you can watch them clear easily and try one each week to see how its going, that way your not wasting a full 500ml everytime you loose your pateince

i've found that the end result varies with time and each beer will vary in how long it takes to get there, if you try it and you like it, drink it (responsibly of course ) :

Have you noticed a change on a week by week basis?

 

[NickW]

2 weeks in the keg and it's lovely if it's a wheat beer :drink:

2 weeks? You're leaving it too long mark :lol:

 

[Cheshire muzz]

I dry hopped a brew (muntons best)and started drinking it after a few weeks. It was so drinkable it went pretty quickly. I then Found 4 bottles in my garage quite a few months later and I now regret drinking so much when it was so young. The mature versions was a completely different beer. ... And very nice too

 

[keith1664]

2 weeks in the keg and it's lovely if it's a wheat beer :drink:

2 weeks? You're leaving it too long mark :lol:

I had some earlier this week that'd been in the bottle a whole 10 days, very nice...and quite lively on the carbonation. :

 

[klaus]

My latest AG brew (Directors clone) was seven days in FV, then kegged (I know I know probably too early but gravity reading was good). Then a quality check after 3 days (again, much too early ....) and it's great. Not cleared yet but I not really bothered - will try again in a week, or tomorrow ???

 

[Sandimas]

They are all different. I've had some that are good straight away (e.g. Brupaks Almondbury Old that I brewed recently) and some that take an age to come good (e.g. an Extract clone of St Austell Proper Job that I did last summer). Generally though, the wheats take the shortest and the lagers take the longest - I don't touch my lager for at least 3 months. And Belgians take even longer, just sampled a Brewferm brew 2 months in and it's only just drinkable (tried it 2 weeks in and it was 'orrible).

 

[Duxuk]

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.

 

Have you noticed a change on a week by week basis?

i tried a small bottle each week form bottling and deffinitly noticed a difference, the hard part now is knowing its nice enough to drink already but that it will get better with time, its not gonna have much chance to survive long enough to find out

 

[Mark H]

I brew AG nowadays. 7-10 days in the fermenter, 2-3 days in the keg and its good enough to drink for me.

I do find that if i have a keg on the go for a few weeks the taste will develop and change, the last pint i draw is often quite different to the first.

 

think i'll go for another 2 weeks with the current one before drinking, it was bottled about a week ago. need to decide what's next as there's 2 5 gallon FV's that are empty now along with 6 gallon sized ones.....

might do some 1 gallon brews to experiment a bit with dry hopping and possibly a lager in a 5 gallon.

 

[graysalchemy]

I am not a fan of green beer. Green beer is what we are used to as that is all you get in pubs and it is wjhat we are told by the admen that we should drink as that is the only way breweries can make beer profitably. But it never used to be that way aged beer was the norm in Victorian times. Like a good wine I find that flavours mellow with age and some of the spikes in flavour out of balance with the beer, become more rounded and disapear.

I usually find that the last bottle which may have been there for 7-8 months is quite often the best (hoppy pales an exception to this) and I wish I had left it longer before drinking. Patience really does pay off IMHO.

 

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

 

[Fore]

The flavour definately changes continuously, and certainly noticable between first and last keg draw. I see it like an exponential curve, i.e. it changes loads in the first few days, but not so much between month 3 and 4. Preference is personal, so difficult to say if older is better; most will say so, as what's harder to achieve must be better.......?

I've not managed to age a beer longer than 4 months yet, but I do find that the older the beer, the more it edges to pub standard. It's difficult to put my finger on it, but it just offers a more rounded flavour; the beer distinguishes itself, forming a flavour of its own.

That said, right from the outset, even when green, it's pretty clear if its a style you will like or not.