Beer style & age

[Mike A]

After reading a whole lot and trying to understand these subjects better, but as I have zero experience other than up to the bottling stage so far, I'd be interested in more experienced brewers input on this subject.

Questions:

 

1. Conditioning/maturing/ageing beer at room temp (outside of natural carbonation where warmer temps are needed),  do you all move your product to fridges or leave it in as cool a spot as possible?
2. Are any of you storing batches "warm" until ready to drink? Has  this had any impact on taste in your opinion?
3. Seems to me that forced carbonation, despite needing more gear, can be more space efficient also as it's quicker time to drink, depending on beer style & ability to store mini-kegs on their sides in a fridge. Is that accurate or am I missing something?
4. The 4-6 weeks before ready to drink that most talk about here, seems mostly to do with natural carbonation, does forced carbonation make it better faster or just fizzy faster & you still want to leave your beers for 6 weeks anyhow to get it to the same place?

For some interesting reading on the subject I found these other posts interesting on this subject;

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/optimum-maturity-time-for-different-beer-styles.87517/

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/does-beer-get-better-with-age.103996/post-1578423

Beyond my further education, the other reason for posting this is i'm very space constrained, at least for now, so trying to plan where to put my $$ for best use.

Thanks!

[Steve Gyldenvand]

Hi Mike. I get the whole "space constrained" problem. At any given time I have 200-300 bottles on hand, which sort of challenges my storage capabilities. I have a spare bedroom that has gradually evolved into storage since the kids flew the nest, with an area I have commandeered for secondary conditioning that will accommodate maybe 150 bottles. When that area gets full, I'll move some bottles to the cellar where it's colder. For this I generally select older inventory, and higher ABV "sipping" beers that will benefit from a bit more time in the bottle. However, a lot of my beers end up being "stored warm" until they're gone; my wife enjoys a good beer as much as I do, plus we are pretty generous with our friends, so once a beer gets good, we tend to drink through the existing inventory fairly quickly. 

Regarding the "4-6 weeks before ready to drink" matter, I've found that my bottled beers are usually fully carbonated at 2 weeks. Any time after that is really about maturity and developing character, and that can vary considerably from one style to the next. Personally, I do not hesitate to start sampling my beers at 2 weeks, and as mentioned above, once they "get good", well... Of course, there are some styles that I bottle and cellar specifically to let them age; Belgian Strong, you can raise your hand now.

Sorry I can't address your forced carbonation questions, but I'm sure some of our friends here can help with that.

Hope this helps, Mike. 

Slainte

[Mike A]

No it all helps.  I'm doing similar with the spare room, but I'm also storing too much in the house, waiting till I can afford a garage rebuild to put all the tools and other toys where they belong which will eventually free up more space.  Even still, I'm not sure I'd ever have enough fridge space to store a lot of variously mature brews, so trying to come up with options really.

Lucky you have a cellar, I don't have one, but my house is on stumps so I do have an underfloor that's bare, I've half been thinking of putting stuff down there, but suspect that with out 40c+ summers (104f+) I don't think that'd be good for beer.  At least the aircon will take care of the spaces in the house in summer.

You at least confirmed the storing warm element.  I was reading how heat can slowly damage beers, but if it's a relatively cool space (as opposed to cold/hot) then that's what I have to work with.

The space 2x 5L mini-keg takes up is a lot less than 30+ bottles however, which is where I'm starting to think it may be worth looking at.

[Rob Courtney]

8 hours ago, Mike A said:

No it all helps.  I'm doing similar with the spare room, but I'm also storing too much in the house, waiting till I can afford a garage rebuild to put all the tools and other toys where they belong which will eventually free up more space.  Even still, I'm not sure I'd ever have enough fridge space to store a lot of variously mature brews, so trying to come up with options really.

Lucky you have a cellar, I don't have one, but my house is on stumps so I do have an underfloor that's bare, I've half been thinking of putting stuff down there, but suspect that with out 40c+ summers (104f+) I don't think that'd be good for beer.  At least the aircon will take care of the spaces in the house in summer.

You at least confirmed the storing warm element.  I was reading how heat can slowly damage beers, but if it's a relatively cool space (as opposed to cold/hot) then that's what I have to work with.

The space 2x 5L mini-keg takes up is a lot less than 30+ bottles however, which is where I'm starting to think it may be worth looking at.

Hi Mike, force carbing does make beer fizzy quicker but does not accelerate the maturing process. A great poster on here used to have his kegs set up to mature for 6 weeks (though I can remember plenty of posts about 4 weeks...and 2) and then go down the process of drinking.

As far as bottling, I try to keep my bottles between 16-26 Celcius for as long as I can, which means in winter I have my bottles in the main room of the house for the first 3-4 weeks as that is temp controlled. During summer though I keep them in the old stone part of the house to minimise heat. All, that does though is just helps the flavour of the beer develop.

If I left my beers under that 16C temperature, it would just develop slower, so in theory, you could keep them at 12 degrees in a wine fridge for instance and pulling figures out of my butt an eight week beer might taste like a 4 week.

For your example though with 40 degree weather and you were bottling, I'd second an area of the house that has airconditioning. In reality, the amount of days your house would be over 30 degrees inside would be negligible during summer, and you could work off some of the beer calories by moving boxes back and forth

[Rob Courtney]

On 29/11/2023 at 1:30 PM, Mike A said:

After reading a whole lot and trying to understand these subjects better, but as I have zero experience other than up to the bottling stage so far, I'd be interested in more experienced brewers input on this subject.

Questions:

 

1. Conditioning/maturing/ageing beer at room temp (outside of natural carbonation where warmer temps are needed),  do you all move your product to fridges or leave it in as cool a spot as possible?
2. Are any of you storing batches "warm" until ready to drink? Has  this had any impact on taste in your opinion?
3. Seems to me that forced carbonation, despite needing more gear, can be more space efficient also as it's quicker time to drink, depending on beer style & ability to store mini-kegs on their sides in a fridge. Is that accurate or am I missing something?
4. The 4-6 weeks before ready to drink that most talk about here, seems mostly to do with natural carbonation, does forced carbonation make it better faster or just fizzy faster & you still want to leave your beers for 6 weeks anyhow to get it to the same place?

For some interesting reading on the subject I found these other posts interesting on this subject;

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/optimum-maturity-time-for-different-beer-styles.87517/

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/does-beer-get-better-with-age.103996/post-1578423

Beyond my further education, the other reason for posting this is i'm very space constrained, at least for now, so trying to plan where to put my $$ for best use.

Thanks!

1) as per previous post

2) as per previous post, tend to keep them between 16-26, i do believe there have been some days that have gone over that temp in the room without any issue

3) I agree with you, it appears like that to me. I will go down that path one day though I occasionally bust out the old beer flo and have a session with some ales but the idea of say 4 10 litre kegs, two minis could probably sort it

4)as per previous post. Look, there is nothing wrong drinking a beer as soon as it is carbonated. In the same way some people like steak blue, some rare etc etc, it is the same with beer, some prefer it earlier. There is no right way and I can't tell you which way to go on this, it will be your own trial and error...which involves beer drinking so a much better trial and error than some things. The annoying bit is some drink better early and some don't and worse, ones you have pegged as not drinking well early, will be delicious at three weeks the next time

[Mike A]

3 hours ago, Rob Courtney said:

If I left my beers under that 16C temperature, it would just develop slower

So you're also saying that warm also matures it faster then?

Yeah i think that's where this chart basically starts to say it all:  (Darker beers aside) my read of it is basically "try and drink it before the 3 month mark, but the first month is a wash".

[Rob Courtney]

1 hour ago, Mike A said:

So you're also saying that warm also matures it faster then?

Yeah i think that's where this chart basically starts to say it all:  (Darker beers aside) my read of it is basically "try and drink it before the 3 month mark, but the first month is a wash".

Some beers last longer yeah but as a rule of thumb I find between say 4 and 10 weeks is a good area for beer drinking. I have completed some fresh wort kits and they've shown little difference up to 5 months though. They can sometimes be a hassle to source though

[Mike A]

Found at least 4 "local" (within 40mins drive from my house, Kegland, Australian home brewing, Grain & grape) homebrew stores with fresh kits.  For me however, I'm a low bitterness preference and I'm wanting to explore some of the porters and stouts and other German beers, not reproductions or versions of commercial beers.  Haven't seen many Dunkelweizen's for example, so once I work my way through several more of the kits on here to orient myself to what's possible, I may try a BIAB as I have a big stock-pot a few thermometers & cooling racks, so I should only need grain and a bag.

Mostly for reasons of wanting portability and efficiency on space I'm coming around to the idea of kegging & CO2 before I thought I would.   I think the brewflo has it's place but for someone who doesn't necessarily drink every day and portability is a prefrence, doesn't seem a great fit for me personally.  I think I'll use the flo for my more "go-to" beers like Heffeweizen styles. However for the other ones like the darker styles, I suspect I'll end up wanting to share those more often and worst case I can still bottle from the kegs anyhow.  Helps knowing that while holding them in the fridge is "better" i can get away with a reasonably temperature controlled house for storage while I wait for maturity.

Gotta say, lovin the droid so far though, I've been watching all these homebrew vids or reading what people are doing, so far my experience has been incredibly low effort and despite my Weissbier first brew being a bit green on the first taste, I could tell the basics were there, so be interesting to see what it's like in a couple more weeks.  Exciting stuff.

Fun journey, lots to learn, lots to experiment with, more excuses to use my other toys to build stuff for this new hobby.  Just found a great design for a flat-pack wooden beer caddy, think I'll make that tomorrow!

[Rob Courtney]

On 30/11/2023 at 9:47 PM, Mike A said:

 

Gotta say, lovin the droid so far though, I've been watching all these homebrew vids or reading what people are doing, so far my experience has been incredibly low effort and despite my Weissbier first brew being a bit green on the first taste, I could tell the basics were there, so be interesting to see what it's like in a couple more weeks.  Exciting stuff.

 

That sums up my first beer with Brewart.

It was fine, it was beer, second and third glass was better than the first but I was wary.

[Steve Gyldenvand]

On 30/11/2023 at 5:17 AM, Mike A said:

Fun journey, lots to learn, lots to experiment with...

And there it is. Welcome to the party, Mike. Slainte!