Drinking fresh beer vs. maturing

[u/blackarrow_1990]

Hello,

I am still beginner in brewing and recently switched to kegs. After the gravity is stable I do transfer to kegs and leave beer to carbonate cold. The beer becomes clearer and carbonates well in two weeks at about 4 C.

What I often read is that a lot of beers should be drank fresh. Basically, after a week of carbing or even days when rolling the keg etc.

Well, I had few beers in keg and they are (at least for my taste) not nearly finished after a week. Two weeks is better or even longer.

Is it dependend on type of beer? I do not brew strong beers, all of them are 4-6% ABV. Mostly around 5%.

How long do you mature beer and at which temperature? Does your beer really taste good after a week only?

Thanks.

[u/Spirited-Owl-8361]

Two weeks in cold is usually my minimum too, before week two the yeast still hasn't fully dropped and the flavors are a bit sharp. The "drink fresh" advice works mostly for hop-forward styles like IPAs where aroma fades fast, but even those benefit from a week or two to settle. For anything with malt character, a month cold makes noticeable difference.

[u/Rubberfootman]

I would only drink something like an IPA fresh. For stouts and strong beers I’d mature them for at least 3 months.

[u/MmmmmmmBier]

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a home brewer comment “isn’t it weird that the last few beers in a keg are the best of the batch”.

[u/SaltyPockets]

I use a sealed, pressure fermenter with a spunding valve set at 5-10psi. My schedule is -

• Temp controlled fridge at 18C until gravity is stable, maybe a day or two longer. Takes up to a couple of weeks.
• Raise temp to 22-24C for 48 hours (diacetyl rest/yeast cleanup)
• Cold crash to 3C for 48 hours, in the fermenter, to clarify
• Keg it and shove it in the kegerator at 3C

Usually the beer is ready to drink once it has carbonated fully, which can take a week or so. The last two batches have been pretty excellent, and I kegged a batch of red ipa at the weekend which I'm going to sample later to see if it's ready.

[u/blackarrow_1990 → u/SaltyPockets]

I do not brew IPAs, did you brew some dark ales or lagers and how it looks like with maturing?

[u/SaltyPockets → u/blackarrow_1990]

Never tried a lager. I'm still learning my techniques with the current setup and Lager has nowhere to hide if you mess up :)

I did a British Best/Special type of beer last brew, which was delicious. Malt forward, it was made just with pale and crystal malts, some torrified wheat, and using Fuggles, EKG and Bramling cross in the boil. No whirlpool or dry hop, safale S04 for the yeast. It came out as nut-brown as it was supposed to be, with a very Fullers ESB type of taste.

I drank it over the course of 2-3 months and I think it was a little better when very fresh, but there's not a lot in it. I think I even enjoyed the pint I poured myself directly from the fermenter the most, but then I'm a fan of real ales so a naturally low-carbed fresh pour suits the style.

Now my current cider... I made that from granny-smith juice and it came out tasting nice but smelling like an overused toilet at a music festival on day 3. Two months under gas and that has mellowed very nicely, it's now quite fragrant and delicious.

Basically, YMMV, but I think you get the most aroma and hoppiness early, if that's what you're after, and CO2 will tend to mellow things out a little over time.

[u/4skinlive → u/blackarrow_1990]

I use a similar setup and felt my lagers clear up much more at about week 4 after moving to my serving keg. Taste wise however, I haven't noticed a major difference.

When I brew I always ferment in a corny keg with a sounding valve and am drinking fully carbonated beer by day 21.

[u/Jmckeown2]

The hoppier brews need to be fresh. Sours need to age. Lower abv beers should not age. Boozier brews may be candidates.

But like all things home brew, there’s no real rules.

[u/Western_Big5926 → u/Jmckeown2]

HighABv Belgians age just
Fine

[u/Spo0k14]

My lagers are best after about 60 days in keg. But my IPAs are best as soon as they’re carbed. Ales vs lagers I guess, ales better fresher. But my IPAs are all westies and hop forward. I carb at serving pressure so 10-15 days from kegging.  But it’s not that big of a swing. I use potassium sulfate at kegging 0.2-0.3g per keg. And I use biofine when I start cold crashing ~30ml. Relax don’t worry, have a homebrew. 

[u/blackarrow_1990 → u/Spo0k14]

What is potassium sulfate used for? I have potassium metabisulfate used for wine stabilisation, not sure if this is the same.

[u/Spo0k14 → u/blackarrow_1990]

Yes that’s what I use. Keeps my hoppy beers hoppy longer and my lagers fresh even after weeks in keg. 

[u/BlanketMage]

I like hef and dunkelweizen fresh, but everything else I honestly prefer 4-6month old

[u/BattledroidE]

My hefeweizen tastes like night and day after 3 weeks in bottle. Belgian dubbel is 2 weeks today and tastes like hot alcohol, that'll be good for Christmas and next year. My brown ale was delicious straight from the fermenter. My juice red wine is great after a month. Seems like it varies a lot.

[u/IakwBoi]

I mostly like dark ales and have never noticed quality falling off, even after 4 months in the keg (I drink slow). I’ve never noticed that they taste worse early on. Lately I have been getting into hoppy beers, and I have never noticed the flavor dropping off over time. I do keg fermenting and closed transfers. 

One thing I do know and have very strong feelings about is that beer grows on me. The first pour may taste one way or another, by weeks later on my 30th glass I’ve grown fond of my brew. 

I’ve been experimenting with different styles this year, and things I wouldn’t normally love become dear old friends by the time I’m at the bottom of the keg. A very light beer for which my initial impression is “watery” become “light and refreshing” as I acclimate to it. Hoppy IPAs which are not my thing eventually become something I appreciate and look forward to. The extreme example was a stout I made years ago which went sour, which I hated at first, but eventually I found myself itching to come back to. 

Do stouts age well and ipas age poorly? Does oxygen quickly spoil beer? Honestly, I don’t know. I expect that a lot of what we hear online is tainted with suggestion that it should be so, and probably a lot of drinkers are like me and are eager to have their own experiences match the accepted dogma. I’m sure that a lot of folks on this sub have very refined palettes and can discern more than I can, but these subtleties of one style at two months old vs another are largely lost on me. What I do know for sure, though, is that as I drink a batch, my preference bends strongly towards it over time in a way that certainly outweighs any influence of aging. 

[u/IakwBoi → u/IakwBoi]

Side note - in December I’ll be cracking open some barleywine I made last December. Half the bottles were stored in a fridge and half at room temp. I’ll be doing triangle tests with party guests and I’ll get some evidence for my own about how temperature affects people’s preference for clumsily-made barley wine. So I don’t know much but in a few months I will know that. 

[u/Professor_Sippenpuff → u/IakwBoi]

Yeah I agree with your point about beers growing on me. We put a good amount of thought and engineering and hard work toward the goal of accomplishing something really subtle, but my friends always love it right off when I just taste how it’s not what I was aiming for.

I brewed a Helles this year that under-attenuated just a little and missed the bitterness balance I was imagining by just a little on the sweet side. I drank a few pints over a week and was disappointed each time. Then a week later I did some work in the garden or something and poured myself a big one afterwards and it was fantastic. Well aged, the beer was definitely not different.

When looking for subjective flaws I usually find them. When looking for a cold beer on a hot day I’m very happy.

[u/boarshead72]

To me it depends on your palate and the yeast strain (and whether or not gelatin was used). When the beer is cold, yeast and other suspended particulate settles out. Some English strains might be ready in four days. Others might take a couple weeks. Chill haze takes 3ish weeks to form aggregates and drop out. US05 takes ~4-5 weeks to fully drop out (lots of people either don’t notice it or it doesn’t bother them, but I really don’t like it). Lager strains take 4-6 weeks. “Powdery” strains (like 644, 029) will be crystal clear by six weeks. K97 might still be suspended after six months even though it’s a flocculant strain.

Flavour-wise why suspended yeast bugs me is I notice a feeling on my tongue, and if there’s enough yeast a yeasty flavour. Some strains add additional flavours that I associate with Belgian beers (US05 does that for me). Some strains when present muddle or mute the flavours of the grain and hops (US05 also does that for me). You’re right if you’re thinking “this guy really does not like US05”.

[u/Ok_Buy_9703]

I have kegs of homebrew that are easily 6mo old. Brew for church men's retreat and there was an hazy IPA that sat room temp since May that I forgot had 2 gal in it. I tossed in kegerator and hooked up to CO2 it is better now than when fresh... I figured it would at least be brat boiling beer but it's aged well.

[u/kelryngrey]

It really depends on the style. Homebrewers also carry around a lot of ideas that are not necessarily things you'd find in the professional world. Even ten years ago people were still trying to push aging an IPA for a month or two so it could mature - something I don't think you'd ever see now. A 5 to 7% stout is probably going to be ready far more quickly than expected. A saison can sit for months and months or be drunk immediately. I very strongly believe that a lot of the idea that things need age relates more to yeast health than anything else - if you have the right amount of FAN in your wort then you're not going to be worried about some of those young or cheap flavors that you need some time for other flavors to shift and cover.

[u/EducationalDog9100]

The only beer I serve with any speed is Hazy IPAs. One thing that I've started doing, and this isn't for every style and beer, but I add priming sugar to the keg with the beer and let it naturally carbonate. It's been really nice because the beer can sit and condition until a tap opens up to serve the beer.

For connecting the primed keg, I purge the keg and attach to serving gas, let it chill for 24 hours, then serve.

[u/brandonHuxley]

I don’t do much with IPAs so I can’t speak to that. But for my beers, I find they’re best around 4 weeks of aging. Before that, they’re fairly green which I don’t like.

[u/Additional-Text8126]

I found that I don't find any advantage to aging since I started fining my beer. Once the beer is pouring perfectly bright, I've never felt like it improved by time, even with lagers.

[u/timscream1]

I brew mostly low alcohol beers. My sour IPA at 2.5% was a banger as soon as it was carbonated. I have a 2.5% Kentucky common now and it was not great for a month. Now it it lovely: the roastiness melted with the rest of the grain bill and the crystal malt is coming through. Even low alcohol beers have different maturation time.

[u/Razathorn]

If it's hop forward, fresh. If it isn't hop forward, I still drink fresh, but I like it better 1-2 weeks out.

[u/Aggressive_Mix_137]

It would depend..... But realistically, the best thing to note is your OWN preference what tastes like ass to one person might be a great refreshing flavour to another.