Bottling Question

less to drink later?

 

Hey man, if you love it have at it. I remember my first kit was a one gallon kit and it had a two week bottle conditioning time. I'm almost positive that those are just average guidelines to produce carbed. Someone with more experience and knowledge of the science behind bottle conditioning and carbonation might chime in, but your taste buds dictate when the beer you brewed is ready. IMO.

 

I've found, that when it sits for 2+ weeks the flavors meld a bit better. When you start those first few brews tho, patience is not the easiest thing.....

 

Bottle beer (or keg for that matter), all has fine particulates floating around in it. All those particles provide nucleation sites for CO2 to come it of solution quickly. As the beer sits for those 2+ weeks, those particles settle and you get clearer and clearer beer. You will generally notice head stability increasing and bubble size decreasing. All these things lead to a better final product.

 

If you do everything correctly, your beer may be carbonated after 1 week. It definitely will be after 2. Thats why I wait the extra week. Like you said, its a waste if its not ready yet.

 

Try to take mental notes of how the beer tastes after one week, two weeks, three weeks in the fridge. I think I am finding some of my beer keeps getting better and better the longer it is in the fridge. Or gets better after a month or two in the cellar. I've had a few batches where the last beer I drank was the best one

 

Some beers really don't taste as good at 1 week as they will in 6-8. That said, it's not a bad thing to learn this for yourself on an early batch of your own beer.

 

if you like it, if you are satisfied, then drink it. hell, it doesn't matter one bit what anyone else thinks about your beer. none of us have had any, right?

but, a few extra days/ weeks in the bottle will pay off. keep it cold after you are certain you have achieved full carbonation. it is a fact that besides allowing for full carbonation extra time also provides some "lagering" of the product. i use quotes because of course not all beers are lagers, and most craft beer does not need anything like an extended lagering phase. even still the extra time will allow for a much better balanced beer. you will likely find that the quality of the carbonation is much better as well. more head retention, better hop aroma, cleaner, less soapy and an over all better beer.
Cheers

 

You'll notice when you start to get into bigger beers, (RIS, Barleywine etc.) that the beer will take about a month to fully carb. Generally, 2 weeks is a guideline to keep people from trying to rush their beers.

As said above, drink it if you enjoy it. That's the point. You'll find most beers are best from weeks 5-24, depending on the style.

 

Hard to wait, but worth it i think. Ive found that ive been drinking and sharing my bottle conditioned beer way too early. Ive just recently started lengthening my conditioning phase considerably. I do 3 weeks minimum at room temp to carbonate, and at least a week in cold conditioning. I have also found that for higher gravity beers (>1.060 OG), 4 weeks room temp and 2-4 weeks cold is about right. I have a batch of 1.080 stout that i plan to keep at room temp for at least 6 weeks with another 8 cold before i begin to drink it. All this said, i do open a bottle every so often to check in on how it is progressing. Nothing like testing and learning from experience. Cold conditioning for a few weeks does wonders for clarity.

 

I've often found that they're fully carbed after 1-2 weeks and I start in drinking them thinking "meh" but then when the beer finally conditions properly its freaking awesome and I done drank 1/2 my batch while it was still "green" so now I'm just waiting, esp w/ IPAs. Sure they're best fresh but there is a sweet spot.

 

Exacto-mundo!

Think PIPELINE.
Establish a brewing schedule such that you have beers fermenting ... conditioning ... and ready-to-drink in their prime.

 

Glad to see that I am not the only one with little willpower. I have already drank 4 of my first batch and I am kicking myself for wanting to try again tonight and tomorrow... just to see when it is ready. Waiting sucks.

 

And this is why commercial beer still has it's place. Call it "bridge beer", "transition beer", or "gap beer", or "beer for in between beers", but nothing beats the "beer pipeline" as @HerbMeowing adviced. Patience grasshopper and get brewing more.

 

I start drinking my hoppy beers after about a week. The dry hopped IPAs seem to have a sweet spot between 2-3 weeks and about 8 weeks or so. After that they lose a lot of the fresh hop aroma and flavor. I don't drink a ton of beer, so if I don't start in on them right away, a lot of the bottles will age too much and will lose that freshness.

For bigger, darker beers, I'll wait at least 2-3 weeks to start drinking them. Those seem to just get better with age until they're gone.

 

Mmmm beer between beers ::best Homer Simpson voice::

 

This also gives you a chance to buy the reusable bottles, the ones with the rubber seal and spring cap.