Aging homebrew

[Pints]

I was thinking, at what point does beer stored in plastic bottles in a dark cupboard or whatever, start to deteriorate? I want to age my brew a ipa as long as possible to get that optimum flavour etc. 

Is there a sweet spot in terms of age? I know stouts can be aged for a long time

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

2 minutes ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

I was thinking, at what point does beer stored in plastic bottles in a dark cupboard or whatever, start to deteriorate? I want to age my brew a ipa as long as possible to get that optimum flavour etc. 

Is there a sweet spot in terms of age? I know stouts can be aged for a long time

Hoppy beers drink early. Within the first 3 or so months in my opinion. Malty beers and high alcohol beers do better with age. I've had some Belgians almost 2 years old and they are still good but peaked about the 1 year mark. It is variable though based on storage conditions. Mine is at ambient. Cellar temps I'm sure they would last longer. 

If you are ageing you need glass. Plastic will seep in oxygen over time and ruin it eventually.

[stquinto]

1 hour ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

I was thinking, at what point does beer stored in plastic bottles in a dark cupboard or whatever, start to deteriorate? I want to age my brew a ipa as long as possible to get that optimum flavour etc. 

Is there a sweet spot in terms of age? I know stouts can be aged for a long time

@PintsAtMeLocal I agree with @Greeny1525229549 in terms of age, especially for hoppy, dry-hoppped IPA style beers. I've done some blinders (following the Coopers recipes but with useful inputs from the forum members), but have found that the hops tend to get absorbed back into the beers starting after only a month in the bottle. Basically after a two week bottle fermentation you have a two week window you have a really fresh, hoppy IPA, after a month in the bottle it is still really good but has a different profile.

If the recipe says to drink it young, I often make a half-batch. I'm pretty much the only one drinking the stuff in the house, I give some away but SWMBO doesn't touch it.

I bottle mine in brown glass so don't know about PET bottles. 

I have opened a Belgian dubbel after 3 years and was surprised it wasn't foul: past its prime, but still drinkable.

[stquinto]

One other point: some people on the forum pointed out that the dry-hopping is the method that goes the quickest: hops in the boil last longer (obviously not the same effect, but good to know).

Deffo is the case I've found

[Pints]

2 minutes ago, stquinto said:

@PintsAtMeLocal I agree with @Greeny1525229549 in terms of age, especially for hoppy, dry-hoppped IPA style beers. I've done some blinders (following the Coopers recipes but with useful inputs from the forum members), but have found that the hops tend to get absorbed back into the beers starting after only a month in the bottle. Basically after a two week bottle fermentation you have a two week window you have a really fresh, hoppy IPA, after a month in the bottle it is still really good but has a different profile.

If the recipe says to drink it young, I often make a half-batch. I'm pretty much the only one drinking the stuff in the house, I give some away but SWMBO doesn't touch it.

I bottle mine in brown glass so don't know about PET bottles. 

I have opened a Belgian dubbel after 3 years and was surprised it wasn't foul: past its prime, but still drinkable.

Thanks bud noted. I think I'll try one at 3 weeks and again at 6 weeks 

[Journeyman]

8 hours ago, stquinto said:

One other point: some people on the forum pointed out that the dry-hopping is the method that goes the quickest: hops in the boil last longer (obviously not the same effect, but good to know).

Deffo is the case I've found

I've found when I want the hops aroma and flavour to come through it's best to do a tea. It's not as in-your-face as a dry hops but it lasts longer. I did a few late in the boil, like 10 mins or even 4 mins once and the tea is similar in effect.

[Classic Brewing Co]

11 hours ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

If the recipe says to drink it young,

I definitely don't have a problem with that, one of the hoppiest, best tasting beers I have ever made was the former ROTM AUS IPA, I still have a carton of 15 PET's bottled 18th June, I had a couple last night & it was great. The label isn't correct. The hops were added to the grain boil/steep exactly as per recipe. Great Beer !

[Smashed Crabs]

23 hours ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

Is there a sweet spot in terms of age? I know stouts can be aged for a long time

I know your referring to IPA's but being someone who aged a RIIS for 12 months in the plastic bottles to discover the lids leaked its quite depressing. IPA's don't need that long so they are fine in the PET's but if you ever try age a stout etc its worth throwing them into glass bottles for that.

 

Just as I was posting this read greenys post which is spot on 

[RDT2]

On 7/26/2021 at 9:11 PM, Greeny1525229549 said:

Hoppy beers drink early. Within the first 3 or so months in my opinion. Malty beers and high alcohol beers do better with age. I've had some Belgians almost 2 years old and they are still good but peaked about the 1 year mark. It is variable though based on storage conditions. Mine is at ambient. Cellar temps I'm sure they would last longer. 

If you are ageing you need glass. Plastic will seep in oxygen over time and ruin it eventually.

+1 to this I had a stout I had aged in the bottle for 12months it was bloody awesome, and recently found a smoked porter from a year and a half ago it was still good but could tell it was past it’s peak. That was surviving a summer in the garage as well so as @Greeny1525229549 said would be interesting in consistent cool cellar temps  

Edited July 27, 2021 by RDT2

[BlackSands]

On 7/27/2021 at 11:57 AM, Journeyman said:

I've found when I want the hops aroma and flavour to come through it's best to do a tea. It's not as in-your-face as a dry hops but it lasts longer. I did a few late in the boil, like 10 mins or even 4 mins once and the tea is similar in effect.

One method I've been trialling in recent brews is actually leaving late boil/post-boil steeped hops in the FV throughout fermentation.   There's some that suggest there's still plenty of goodies to be had from hops that have only been boiled/steeped for a short time.  I guess it's kind of like doing a dry-hop using partially depleted hops.  Anyway, I've done it quite a few times now and the beers have all presented with a notable and pleasant enough hop character.  What I haven't done and probably won't do is an A/B where I can directly assess more difinitively any possible benefits from doing this.    

 

I've never aged a brew beyond 8 months - a saison.  It definitely benefitted from the time, though I suspect a law of diminishing returns applies.  i.e. at 8 months I suspect it wasn't substantially better than say at 3 months.

Edited July 28, 2021 by BlackSands

[Pickles Jones]

1 hour ago, BlackSands said:

One method I've been trialling in recent brews is actually leaving late boil/post-boil steeped hops in the FV throughout fermentation.   There's some that suggest there's still plenty of goodies to be had from hops that have only been boiled/steeped for a short time.  I guess it's kind of like doing a dry-hop using partially depleted hops.  Anyway, I've done it quite a few times now and the beers have all presented with a notable and pleasant enough hop character.  What I haven't done and probably won't do is an A/B where I can directly assess more difinitively any possible benefits from doing this.    

 

I've never aged a brew beyond 8 months - a saison.  It definitely benefitted from the time, though I suspect a law of diminishing returns applies.  i.e. at 8 months I suspect it wasn't substantially better than say at 3 months.

I agree. I did a hop tea with Citra put it in at the FV before yeast and put the Tea bag in at the same time as per the instructions on the sealed pack.

It worked out well as you have said above.  I think you get a bit more bang for your buck doing it this way instead of doing one or the other.