When (not where) is your sweet spot?

[SteveL]

[whistling I realise this is a stupid, open ended question (depends on what style of brew/storage conditions/temps/alc.content/personal tastes etc etc etc) but anyway:

How long after bottling do you think your home brew tastes best or hits the sweet spot - generally speaking?

 

[Muddy Waters]

My beer usually comes good on a Thursday [ninja]

[PB2]

For me it depends on the beer style and, of course, quality of the beer. As an example, compare two Coopers commercial ales \u2013 Original Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale.

I like Pale estery, sherbet on the tongue with medium bitterness \u2013 these characters are most obvious when young.

I like Sparkling when the esters, alcohol and malt have melded and the bitterness has softened somewhat \u2013 around the +9mth mark.

 

Beers with shed loads of dry hop need to be consumed asap [love]

 

[Muddy Waters]

Seriously though, for a pale ale style beer I find 4-5 weeks to be the sweet spot for it entering the "epic" phase. I like to put my sparkling aside for 3 months but it rarely makes it to the 9month+ mark that PB2 mentions.

 

I rarely make lagers but, needless to say, they take a bit longer.