The magic of conditioning

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GHW

Landlord.
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So, we've all tried the beer on bottling/kegging/barreling day, and if we're honest it's generally a bit ropey.

So what happens during those four weeks that turns it into wonderful beer?

It can't all be just carbing, surely?
 
Dunno really probably a combination of a few things

1) carbing and foaming does improve mouth feel
2) yeast drops out and beer clears (yeast can be bitter and astringent)
3) harsher flavours mellow allowing other flavours to balance better??
4) As I found out with lagering it can help crispen it up and give a smoother taste
5) ..... um.....
6) Weird beer Magic!! (I think I am supposed to suggest that it is all a biological process)
 
So, we've all tried the beer on bottling/kegging/barreling day, and if we're honest it's generally a bit ropey.

So what happens during those four weeks that turns it into wonderful beer?

It can't all be just carbing, surely?

There is a series of non stop chemical changes that continue to happen to the beer even after it is bottled. This transforms from green beer to mature beer.
These occur in the original conditioning phase after fermenting but also carry on after secondary fermenting in the bottle/cask.

The main difference during maturation is the reduction of acetaldehyde that give a green beer a green apple flavour, this mellows slowly with time

The yeast still carries on cleaning up after itself, some of the more ropey higher alcohols are brorken down, off flavours can sometimes be absorbed/changed by the yeast ( diacetyl, esters) and the hop flavours combine as they age slightly.
During this time yeast and proteins in suspension will precipitate out and the beer will stabilise and clear.
Unfortunately some off flavours due to dead yeast, oxygenation or contamination can also develop during maturation and there's nowt you can do about it now as maturation happens to bad beer as well as good!

The carbing itself will also change the appreciation and mouthfeel of the beer, it can soften the taste , add a bit of zing and at the end of the day can be the difference between an OK and a good beer

(Please note any spelling mistakes are purely accidental and not a continuation of the prevous pisstakes! see Iv'e done it again!
 
Sure, lots of good science reasons behind it, like yeast's conversions of various sugars into different flavours. But I personally always like think of it like making a curry. The curry tastes good the first night you make it and eat, the next day it tastes even better, by the third day, everything is really good. And if the curry was **** in the first place, sometimes waiting to eat it really helps and sometimes, it's even worse.
 
Sure, lots of good science reasons behind it, like yeast's conversions of various sugars into different flavours. But I personally always like think of it like making a curry. The curry tastes good the first night you make it and eat, the next day it tastes even better, by the third day, everything is really good. And if the curry was **** in the first place, sometimes waiting to eat it really helps and sometimes, it's even worse.

Probably the same type of science after all Beer and Curry are first cousins!
 
The recent release of the Brewdog recipes, whatever you may think of them, had some comments on some of them around ageing, particularly the stronger ales.

It is truly fascinating stuff, and these comments in this thread make me want to brew and brew and brew, and build up a cellar of ales to be treasured and revered, and gradually savoured over a long period of time, as one might do with wine, just to see what happens. Unfortunately I am still new to this and get overly excited about it all, and can't wait to get a bottle open and down my neck "just to see". Sigh.

I read a great blog on all this recently. Am I allowed to link to it here? Either way it was all about aging beers. I think I may have googled it, actually. I can't remember that far back as it was nearly a whole four days ago.

Dog.
 
The recent release of the Brewdog recipes, whatever you may think of them, had some comments on some of them around ageing, particularly the stronger ales.

It is truly fascinating stuff, and these comments in this thread make me want to brew and brew and brew, and build up a cellar of ales to be treasured and revered, and gradually savoured over a long period of time, as one might do with wine, just to see what happens. Unfortunately I am still new to this and get overly excited about it all, and can't wait to get a bottle open and down my neck "just to see". Sigh.

I read a great blog on all this recently. Am I allowed to link to it here? Either way it was all about aging beers. I think I may have googled it, actually. I can't remember that far back as it was nearly a whole four days ago.

Dog.

Go for it. :thumb:
 
I had a wheat beer of mine that was a year old the other night, found two bottles of it. Other than the fact it had turned into a crystalweissen as all the yeast had dropped out (having noticed it I thought I'd drink it like that rather than rouse the yeast), it didn't really taste any different to when it was young, as they're supposed to be drunk.

Mostly I can't be arsed to keep it long enough to find out how it ages. I don't make any super strong beers that would benefit enough
 
It seems from my limited understanding that, as you suggest, strong beers can benefit from a longer time in the bottle, but that weaker, lighter and potentially simpler (in terms of the ingredients) beers are better drunk fresh.

As I said, though, limited understanding. I also struggle to keep them un-drunk. A metaphor for life, perhaps!
 

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