Planned aging time strong beers

Any stout over 8 abv is usually better after 3 months.
Any stout aged on oak or other wood is better after 6 months and continues to change , usually for the better.

Stouts with nibs or coconut at 8 or better abv is 3 months but the nibs and coconut fade after 9. Still tasty beer but these additions fade in my beers after time.
Burton ale, mine is 10 abv minimum, 6 months and really shines at a year.
Imperial fruit beer, like Belgian blueberry, starts being good at 6 months and was superb at 18 months.

All of these beers I bottle condition and keep in the celler that stays between 45 and 55 F.

 

Generally, the stronger the beer, the longer it will age and keep. Not necessarily improve.
I have a homebrew Belgian-style strong dark ale, soured (based on Russian River's Consecration) that is still excellent 7 years after I bottled it. Another oatmeal stout that's a couple - 3 years old that I am more than extremely happy with this long.
But other beers, usually lighter ones, that go off pretty quickly.
IPAs, be it NE, double, triple, whatever, don't normally age well - the hop character fades out relatively quickly, usually within 6 months, a year at most. If you're really lucky and have the right grain bill, a big IPA may become close to a barleywine and does well, but these are few and far between. If you are looking for something to age and possibly cellar, look to the darker Belgian styles - Dubbels and Quads (IMO Saisons and Tripels are bette consumed young,) barleywines and stouts. Not to mention sours styles, if that's your thing. However, those do have other things to keep in mind - contamination of fermenters, aging containers, and racking / transfer equipment.

 

To add, if your tastes favor aged beers you have had in the past then proceed. Every bodies palate is different.
If your preference is fresh beers, then ageing may not be for you.

Good luck

 

The only thing I can really add here after the advice given by @GormBrewhouse and @JrGtr is that you should be drinking your regular beers (not fruited, coffee-added, cocoa beans aged, or oaked) straight through from fresh to completely aged. You'll probably notice a fairly big difference right off the bat, say between the first one you taste a week or so after bottling, and another one a week to up to a month later. Then the changes will be less noticeable, and the further you go, as long as you've properly packaged it and cellared it correctly, they'll become hardly noticeable until you hit at least the 9 month mark, and often much further than that. You could try putting one in the fridge at 6 months and then comparing it to a cellared version at the year mark, which might give you a better idea of what's going on with the aging - but until you've gone through the cycle there's no point in just putting it in the cellar and hoping that age will improve it, you've got to drink it.

One more thing that I can add is that when I brew a stronger beer, regardless of what the style it is, I give it more time to condition (and stabilize) in the fermenter (I have unitanks) whereas I'll start to drop the temperature on a standard pale ale immediately after the fermentation is done. I'll leave a stronger beer to sit for a week or so, maybe even more, and then drop it much slower than I usually do. I usually drop 5F per day until I hit 50 and then crash to 32F but I'll go 5F for two or three days until I get down to 60F with a stronger beer. If you add that up it's an extra two to three weeks in the fermenter (not including if you rack it to secondary), but I feel that stronger beers need that extra time to completely finish everything up.

 

I will second the aspect of more conditioning time for stronger beers as mentioned by Jim (@NeroFiddled) above. When I brew my stronger beers (e.g., Quad, Tripel, Dubbel, Robust Porter,...) I let the beer 'sit' for a minimum of two weeks in the primary. I have always done this so I really have no 'baseline' of brewing otherwise but I am of the opinion that more time is beneficial for stronger beers.

Cheers!

 

@Elvis_on_Bass with homebrewing, for myself, half the fun is experimentation. I've had plenty of drain pours and lots of success.
I hope you give it a try and report back. My favorite saying is, I'll try anything twice, cause I might not remember the first go round.
With beer brewing , for myself, this is a must.

I 100% agree with @JackHorzempa on secondarying big beers.
A lot of talk has gone around on no need for it, but with big beers, it seems to help flavor blending especially with the imperial stouts, Belgians and big fruit beers.

Have fun

 

You can make a big stout that's quite drinkable weeks (not just months or years) after attenuation has finished. The advice I'm about to give applies to WLP001 specifically, but I think also to some extent to many yeast strains.

- Pitch yeast at a very high rate, i.e. lager-like
- Use yeast nutrient (I like Wyeast)
- Ferment low and slow. I like 61F for WLP001 in a big stout. If/when progress slows significantly, go ahead and raise the temp gradually.

 

I do the same as @VikeMan with. Nottingham yeast.

 

Well, I don't think I've used anything other than WLP001 or Wyeast 1056 in big stouts, if that's what you're contemplating. But what style and ABV are you planning? One thing to consider is that the bigger the beer, the more you need to be aware of the ABV tolerance of potential yeast strains.

If by restrained you mean clean, low esters, etc., then I'll repeat my recommendation of WLP001. When thinking about a high FG (i.e. low attenuation %), keep in mind that yeast strain is one of several factors. Other important ones include grain bill, mash temperature, and mash length.