Ideal conditioning period for brews in bottles

bennyineire

Just wondering what peps think is the ideal time to drink your brews (kitbrews) after you have bottled. The kits usually say after 3 weeks but they don't taste to good do they at that stage.
My oldest brew is about 5 weeks old now (Coopers Aus Pale Ale) and it has been tasting pretty good in the last week, will the taste improve much over the next week.
I'm thinking maybe 3 months would be optimum but I don't have enough experience to have this opinion, what do you guys reckon ?

BeerNut

Three weeks does me. I find hop freshness starts to deteriorate noticeably after three months.

adamski8

1 week tastes no different than a few weeks for me usually but stouts do seem to need more!

lang

I've generally found that after 3 weeks the carbination usually comes good. Anything before that and it can be quite flat, little head retention, few bubbles. I use PET bottles so can tell how carbed the bottles are by giving them a squeeze. Anything upward of three weeks is good with me. With the stouts I've done it is anything upward of about 6 weeks.

Just bottled a Yorkshire Bitter and am planning on leaving this for about a month before sampling. And sure won't have them all polished off before my self-enforced soberity for the month of July (might end up being 6-weeks in the end). This'll mean that it'll have some good time conditionning.

bennyineire

Would the fact that I'm using tap water make any difference to the taste of my brews

Lovely Bloke

bennyineire wrote: »

Would the fact that I'm using tap water make any difference to the taste of my brews

If you can detect noticable chlorine when you drink water from your tap, then yes, it will.

bennyineire

mmm I think that could be the problem, I have noticed a chlorine type taste from the brews for a few weeks after secondary primer but it usually goes after 3 or so weeks, must try my next brew with filtered water

lang

bennyineire wrote: »

mmm I think that could be the problem, I have noticed a chlorine type taste from the brews for a few weeks after secondary primer but it usually goes after 3 or so weeks, must try my next brew with filtered water

I've started to use Bottled water from Lidl for my brews since I moved to a rural area. The water has a very high lime content and am just being ultra-cautious with it. If doing a hop tea I'd have no problem using the tap water though I would make sure to filter it... just to take some of the lime out of it. There is still loads of lime left though... my poor kettle

Herb Powell

2 weeks to a month is what I leave, seems to work fine. I think a month is the perfect point tbh, but it's always hard to wait that long.

tteknulp

You could also buy camden tablets for removing clorine/cloramines ,half one crushed to each brew

howamidifferent

I've found mine are good to start drinking at three weeks.

Sky King

I have heard the chlorine escapes from tap water after a day or so being lefty to sit - surely this would happen in a fermenter too?

BeerNut

Sky King wrote: »

surely this would happen in a fermenter too?

AFAIK, the brewing/fermenting process turns the chlorine into chloraphenols, which don't go anywhere.

Sky King

Ah right.

I go out to the folks house myself for water anyway, they are on a group scheme. My own tap water tastes like it came out of the pool at Mosney.

Lovely Bloke

Sky King wrote: »

Ah right.

I go out to the folks house myself for water anyway, they are on a group scheme. My own tap water tastes like it came out of the pool at Mosney.

Stray plasters in it?

Must add to the taste of the beer!

Sky King

'If you see a plaster, drink it faster'

tteknulp

Sky King wrote: »

I have heard the chlorine escapes from tap water after a day or so being lefty to sit - surely this would happen in a fermenter too?

Clorine yes but not cloramine it does not evaporate , i found the camden tabs good .

Lovely Bloke

When do the campden tabs go in?

Before the boil? when pitching the yeast?

tteknulp

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

When do the campden tabs go in?

Before the boil? when pitching the yeast?

Half one ,crushed then add to the 18- 20 or so ltrs of cold water ,at start ,then add water to kit mixture after dissolved into f.v. Then pitch yeast last when you have correct temp etc....

ian_m

Generally I drink them after four weeks of conditioning. Wheats are ready pretty much after two weeks and I don't find they get any better or worse after a long length of time. I have found the longer you leave the bottles in the fridge the smaller the bubbles get, after fully carbonating.

I kept a coopers lager for over 12months. Clear as day and lovely sized bubbles.

I had a Coopers Draught that got worse over a longer period. Medicinal taste got stronger with time.

Lovely Bloke

Are these campden tablets readily available anywhere bricks and mortar? Doing a large brew day this weekend, and a few previous brews have had a fairly strong chlorine taste from them that we need to eliminate.

BeerNut

Try camping supplies shops.

tteknulp

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Are these campden tablets readily available anywhere bricks and mortar? Doing a large brew day this weekend, and a few previous brews have had a fairly strong chlorine taste from them that we need to eliminate.

Some tesco stores ,clear water d11 has them

Lovely Bloke

tteknulp wrote: »

Some tesco stores ,clear water d11 has them

Really? Do you know exactly where in the store they are? I live in Finglas so could drop in this afternoon.

tteknulp

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Really? Do you know exactly where in the store they are? I live in Finglas so could drop in this afternoon.

I seen them in homebrew section a few weeks ago ,beside caps,bottles etc....

Youngs brand ,in a white container

Lovely Bloke

Thanks for that, I picked up 2x100 - so just to be clear.

I use a half a tablet in 20 litres, how long should it be left?

I'm doing an extract, not a kit.

tteknulp

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Thanks for that, I picked up 2x100 - so just to be clear.

I use a half a tablet in 20 litres, how long should it be left?

I'm doing an extract, not a kit.

Left ? as stated above ,it disolves ,and chemical reaction occurs with clorine etc.. Thats it

Lovely Bloke

Ah right, so it's an immediate thing, I didn't know that.

Thanks.

cyburger

sorry, slight thread hijack... but it is conditioning period related - can you condition for too long? I've part of a batch (Coopers Canadian Blonde ale) of my first brew which I'm hoping will improve with age I brewed it in mid Jan, so it's been conditioning for about 5 months so far, it wasn't bad, but I just didn't get to drinking it yet - will it still be okay if it hasn't been refrigerated and subject to some (pretty minor, slow) temperature fluctuations?

BeerNut

There are a lot of variables there, cyburger, and the biggest factor is personal taste. It's not likely to "go off" if that's what you mean.

cyburger

fair point on the variables.

If I was to have a more... stable conditioning environment, is there a maximum time that a homebrew will keep at 18-19 degrees celsius before you should fridge it, or is it all just down to experimentation and personal taste?

BeerNut

No, there isn't. I'm not even sure what you mean by "keep". Beer doesn't go off like milk does. Light strike and oxygen are your enemies moreso than temperature.

cyburger

I know it's not like milk. The question I was asking was about off tastes developing if the yeast continues to be active (or maybe it just stops when all the sugar's gone - I don't know, it's why I'm asking peoples advice ), I'm just concerned that lots of people are talking about conditioning for periods of less than a month, so I was worried that there's something wrong with leaving it longer.

Sorry if I'm not using the right terminology, I'm new to HB.

BeerNut

One thing to bear in mind is that it's just beer: homebrew doesn't behave differently to commercial beer, assuming your hygiene and methods are all kosher. If beer only had a shelf-life of a month it would be a tough life for commercial brewers That the beer you make is bottle-conditioned means it can be aged even longer than beer which has been filtered and/or pasteurised.

Bottle conditioned beers do change, and in unpredictable ways. It's fairly normal to find the best bottle out of any batch is the last one, but even that's not always the case.

I'd recommend drinking paler, lighter, hoppier beers young and giving darker and stronger beers more time to mellow. But there are no rules, really, and nothing you need to worry about.

tteknulp

cyburger wrote: »

fair point on the variables.

If I was to have a more... stable conditioning environment, is there a maximum time that a homebrew will keep at 18-19 degrees celsius before you should fridge it, or is it all just down to experimentation and personal taste?

Its good for months , i have left beers for 8 months in the bottle with no ill effects , Belgian beers can take 6-12 months to reach there best condition and taste , Generally stronger abv is longer Condition time. Yeast remains alive till you chill it were it goes dormant,Potassium Sorbate is used sometimes to stop yeast cells Multipling (but hard to kill it )

hope this helps

azzeretti

I don't really buy the whole "beer goes bad" theory to be honest. I would love to research the molecular change of beer over time and how this effects perceived taste. In my simple mind the beer is "locked" in there under seal so it amazes how the taste can change with time - which it unquestionably does. I once tried a 5 year old bottle of IPA I brewed. I was shocked at how little it had changed to be honest - slightly less hoppy I would think but tasted fine and look ed amazing. (I try to lay down at least one bottle from every batch so I have a lot of bottles years old!)

Only last month I stumbled across a 25L batch of cider I pitched in March 2012 (long story - life took center stage for most of last year!) and when I cracked the lid it smelled fine. I bottled it and have been drinking it over the last couple of weeks.

As BN says, keeping light and oxygen away will help alot!

adamski8

Wow, over a year in the fermenter

azzeretti

adamski8 wrote: »

Wow, over a year in the fermenter

Yup, in the primary. No off taste or smell at all. In fact, It was the last brew I had done and it was in my fermentation fridge, in my garage, but I had switched off the temperature controller so it sat there, freezing during the winter and hot during the summer and still come out fine!

sharingan

cyburger wrote: »

I know it's not like milk. The question I was asking was about off tastes developing if the yeast continues to be active (or maybe it just stops when all the sugar's gone - I don't know, it's why I'm asking peoples advice ), I'm just concerned that lots of people are talking about conditioning for periods of less than a month, so I was worried that there's something wrong with leaving it longer.

Hop freshness will disappear with time, but beer spoiling comes about from light strike and oxidisation.

As for how long a beer will last, I know a brewer who is making a majority ale for his friends new born. Basically a beer to be consumed when the child reaches adulthood.