maturing beer

[shimmy]

just wondering how long on average everyone leaves their beer to mature, my oldest batch is from september last year, at the moment i have 192 long necks all of various different recipies, and at various different stages of maturing. annother thing some one told me not to re-use bottles after 4 or 5 times, cause when you re cap they get weak, anyone got any thoughts on this subject?
cheers everyone
time for a brew

[Kevnlis]

Beer maturation depends a lot on the ingredients used and the style of beer. That comes more with experience and knowledge of each style and the ingredients you are using to produce them.

As for re-using bottles, if you mean PET then yes it is recommended to replace them every 10-12 batches. Glass bottles which were intended for re-use (the old thick roll top tallies and stubbies) can be reused indefinitely!

[shimmy]

cheers kevnlis, i meant glass not pet so thats good, as for the style, im into the belgians quite alot, out of 13 batches about 6 or 7 have been belgian

[Kevnlis]

Most Belgian beers will benefit from a bit of aging, 3 months is a good start, give them more if you think they need it.

[gregb]

As said above, depends on style. I've got some barleywines that are now pushing into their third year. Most of the quaffers are gone in a couple of months.

Cheers,
Greg

[shimmy]

damn 3 years, hope i have the patience and stock to make it that long

[red dog]

Heck most of mine get to around 3-4 weeks before I need to sample them. I need a bit more will power I think

[drsmurto]

I start drinking mine less than 30 mins after they are kegged

[Boonie]

I start drinking mine less than 30 mins after they are kegged

.

I used to bottle some 330ml Stubbies of the brew, around 10, and drink one per week til I thought that the beer was ready. So Basically it could go anywhere from 1-11 weeks before I cracked the longies.....sometimes longer.

The oldest beer I have is a Belgian which was bottled on the 9/9/2006 (I have my recipe book saved on Excel at work )

It is for a special occasion, I just have not decided which one yet......

Cheers

Boonie

[TommyH]

I try to leave them at least 3 months. Currently have 12 batches of stubbies and 3 batches of longies in the bottle.

[Robjess]

So who has the oldest brew at the moment? Ive got one which I put down in December 2005, so it would have been 'ready' in January 2006. Ive only started drinking it now - which is what 3 years later!

[Slash]

3 months minimum, maybe 1 or two samples in the meantime to see how it's progressing. Nothing worse than a green beer!

[drsmurto]

I recently tipped out a heap of kit beer, would have been late 2006, early 2007 when i made then.

No more kit beers in stock altho i do have 2 brew enhancers pack that i cant give away!

Oldest beer in stock now is a single bottle of a Guinness type stout i brewed mid April last year. Next is the IIPA that was brewed at the end of April.

[Rabbitz]

You can leave beer for months or years?

How, I find that a few weeks after brewing all the bottles are empty!!!

[Robjess]

How long is beer good for in the bottle then? Like I said.. I have some thats 3 years old and it tastes ok.. how much longer will it be good for?