BeerBorg

It's weird.
I just bottled this IPA, customary to pour myself a glass and taste it early.
It's tasting freaking awesome. All Chinook, and a 1 day dry hop with centennial.
Great flavor and aroma...IDK
My last brown ale came out horrible...it was...ehhh like muddy? Bad aftertaste, like hot almost...
Before that I made an extra hoppy pale ale that turned out good. Not great, but good.
And before that I brewed a bourbon barrel porter, now, after like 6 months or so it was pretty damn awesome. But up until then it was ehhhh, ok at best.

Typing this out, I realize it may be my lack of patience, brewing 101....
As IPAs tend to taste better fresh, I bet if I let that brown ale age 6 months it would have really cleaned up and tasted nice.

Anyways, just felt like posting. cheers!

Have another beer. Your philosophizing too much.

Just kidding. IPAs and Wheat beers are at their best when they are fresh. All of my beers go from grain to glass in 3 weeks. My IPAs and Wheat beers are excellent at that point. My other beers get better with time.

Dampfbier was good at 3 weeks, at least how I made it. I'm loving this stuff. Festbier grainbill but ~1.05 or <, with wheat yeast.

All of my patersbiers (1.04 to 1.05ish Belgians) are good at 3 weeks too.

All of my English Mild's are also good at around 3 weeks. Most of my bitters too.

I can't think of a reason a low abv brown ale would not be ready early too, except for grain tannin issues perhaps.

I'm beginning to learn that myself jivex5k as my brewing becomes more refined and focused!
I thought it was only wheats that benefited from being drunk young!

I guess it was Gymrat that had a pic of a brew on the other website that he was drinking after just a week in the bottle. Looked fantastic and I was amazed!
I held onto that thought and the recent post The Hat had about dry hopping for a short amount of time before bottling and at this moment I'm drinking a well carbonated, 3 1/2 week old AG Nelson Sauvin IPA, dry hopped for three days that has tons of flavor and aroma!
back atch you!
Thanks for the post!
This site is awesome!

My limited experience is different. They all need to wait. Only Centennial Blonde was good at three weeks, and it got better after. Most want at least four weeks, often eight. I wonder what causes different results for different brewers?

John I think a lot of that is how each brewer different taste come in play. I prefer my IPA's with a bit of age on them. At 4 weeks they just taste very grassy, weedy and well like $H!T to me. Since I brew for me I let 'em age.

jivex5k I let my browns, porters & stouts age at least 6 months. I always perceive a strong sulfur & brunt flavor in them when they are young. I had a batch of MR B's Shameless stout that was undrinkable @ 6 weeks. Actually totally forgot about them for 6 months and DAMN!! It turn out to be one of the best beers I have ever had!!! YES!!! I did say something good about MR B

mashani wrote:Dampfbier was good at 3 weeks, at least how I made it. I'm loving this stuff. Festbier grainbill but ~1.05 or <, with wheat yeast.

All of my patersbiers (1.04 to 1.05ish Belgians) are good at 3 weeks too.

All of my English Mild's are also good at around 3 weeks. Most of my bitters too.

I can't think of a reason a low abv brown ale would not be ready early too, except for grain tannin issues perhaps.

When you say 3 weeks, .....Do mean 3 weeks in the fermentor or 3 weeks in the bottle.

3 weeks fermenter 2 weeks carbing and 2 weeks conditioning. The conditioning time is a minimum value. Some beers need 6 months or more. Most lagers a month of conditioning.

John Sand wrote:My limited experience is different. They all need to wait. Only Centennial Blonde was good at three weeks, and it got better after. Most want at least four weeks, often eight. I wonder what causes different results for different brewers?

John, as Bob said, I think it depends on the brewers taste and also what they are trying to accomplish with the brew.
My IPA, I was trying to get a big hop aroma and flavor, and I've found over time this diminishes in a lot of cases.
My last Hefe, the longer it sat, the more sulfury flavored it got!
I just drank a Falconers Flight and Summit pale that had been in the bottle for almost 6 months that had a great flavor, but not so much aroma!
I have a milk stout that has been in the bottle for about 2 months now that is just starting to get a good flavor. Trying to keep my lips off most of them until at least October!
It's mostly preference!

haerbob3 wrote:John I think a lot of that is how each brewer different taste come in play. I prefer my IPA's with a bit of age on them. At 4 weeks they just taste very grassy, weedy and well like $H!T to me. Since I brew for me I let 'em age.

jivex5k I let my browns, porters & stouts age at least 6 months. I always perceive a strong sulfur & brunt flavor in them when they are young. I had a batch of MR B's Shameless stout that was undrinkable @ 6 weeks. Actually totally forgot about them for 6 months and DAMN!! It turn out to be one of the best beers I have ever had!!! YES!!! I did say something good about MR B

Yup that's what my brown ale tasted like. TBH I think I let it get too hot during the fermentation, I remember seeing it at 74F at one point...whoops!
I think I'll stick to IPAs, and pales, and a wheat ale might be nice haven't made one yet...though I'm not sure about an extract wheat ale.
Once I create enough beers I can safely make a stout and have no worries about drinking it early.
The only reason my bourbon barrel porter lasted so long was I gave them all to a friend to hold them, he kept them safe from my greedy paws.

Some of it could be the nature of the IPA style. Not trying to be critical of anyone's brewing prowess here, but hop-forward IPA's, by their very nature, tend to mask other subtle flaws in the beer.

In my early brewing days, while still learning what worked best for me, the only beer I brewed that I really liked consistently was my IPA. Looking back, I doubt it was that I brewed my IPA well and everything else less-well, but was probably due to the fact that the "in your face" nature of the IPA flavor profile covered up the flaws that were more noticeable in the other styles.

Jivex5k, something like that might be playing a role in your assessment of your IPA vs. other brews.

You do have a good point, though, with the comment about aging. If you're comparing fresh IPA's to fresh brown ales or other styles, yes, there's a good chance that the IPA will taste better simply because they generally are better when fresh. In fact, re-reading your original post now, the "hot" comment about the brown ale does seem to indicate that it was still too young to judge fairly.

It sounds like your best bet is to try more patience first, and see if that alone solves your dilemma!

Are these All Grain beers you are talking about...I don't know your brewing method but your brewing water may play a big part in how well your beers come out especially with all grain brewing. If you're using tap water, your tap water might have higher levels of Sulfate which go well with hoppy beers, but when trying to make lighter or maltier styles, higher sulfates bring out harshness and more character from the hops. Alkalinity in your water affects things as well. But that comes into play more with mash ph. So I won't go any further, but to start what kind of brewing do you do and are you using tap water? If so do you have any idea of your water profile?

I do all grain with straight Topeka tap water. When I first started brewing the owner of the LBHS here (that went out of business some time back) told me Topeka tap water is perfect for brewing just the way it is, a couple of brewers I crossed paths with told me the same, that is what I have always used and I have always really enjoyed my beers. I did obtain a water report a while back btw.

I brew with extract and buy water jugs to brew. I know my tap water sucks, haven't ever used it. Used to buy spring water, but I read that with extract it doesn't matter and you can use RO water so that's what I do now.
Yeah, I was also thinking that the hops might be masking flaws. I really need to get a fridge and a temp controller, I know my temps aren't as consistent as I'd like during ferm.