A recipe to age

[blaxbear]

I'm looking to try a recipe that I can age. Try to see the differences between a month, 4 months, 6, and a year; trying a bottle at each step. Any recommendations? I was thinking http://www.mrbeer.com/product-exec/prod ... m/API_IPA1 ...or... http://www.mrbeer.com/product-exec/prod ... Novacaine1

I want to stick to a Mr. Beer recipe for this if possible!

[philm00x]

Belgian style ales are the first thing that come to mind. Belgian strongs, dubbels, trippels, quads... the higher the gravity, the longer it should age. Hoppy beers and wheat beers are something that should be had as young and fresh as possible. I'm sure there are recipes along those lines from Mr. Beer.

[jgm038]

Going with what he said - Brewferm makes a bunch of 9 liter kits (Roughly 2.5 G)...Abbey ales, dubbels, triples, christmas ales etc...From what I've read they all taste pretty good and for some of them Brewferm recommends aging for several months...Costs much less than a Mr. Beer kit too, I just got my Diabolo kit for 17.99 at the LHBS...

I know you said you wanna keep it a Mr. Beer kit, not sure if you meant just because, or if you meant a hopped malt extract.

[jpsherman]

I haven't tried either of those but this would be my suggestion: http://www.mrbeer.com/product-exec/prod ... oppelbock1

1st try at around 3 months or so, and I really liked it. Can't wait to taste again during the holidays.

I would advise you to use as small a bottle as you can so that each test is 1/22nd or 1/16th of a batch, not 1/8th.

[LouieMacGoo]

As Phil mentioned above the higher the gravity the better it will age. Usually when people are wanting to brew something that they can age they will brew a Barley Wine because it is usually a high gravity, high alcohol, brew with a ton of hops and they are aging it for 5 or 10 or more years. The hops tend to really mellow out over time so it ends up being a relatively balanced brew with a higher ABV level of 8% or above. I think Anything you brew from Mr. Beer that has been suggested above will do well over a years time. The big things you want to pay particular attention to is sanitation since the longer it conditions the chance of an infection setting in if there is any bacteria at all and secondly carbonation. Make sure you let the beer ferment properly (i.e. long enough) to avoid over carbonation later. If the brew doesn't ferment all the way and it gets bottles with the priming sugar and you keep condition it for a year you can really increase your chances of getting a bottle bomb.

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

[blaxbear]

I'd heard that hop flavors mellow out over time, so that's why I'm interested in hoppy recipes. Though I have heard dubbels and the like are good for aging, but like I said I want to see how hoppiness fades away. An experiment of sorts.

[FrozenInTime]

If your wanting to see how hops react to aging, do up a hoppy IPA. Try one a week starting at week 8. It will already have diminished some and will continue to almost non existent. Hops aroma IMHO does not stick around for a long time. Like the others have said, do up a Barley wine if u want to try one for a couple years of aging. I've had some 2 yrs up to 3 yrs old that taste good, could not stand them young (under a year).