Aging Your Homebrew Beer

Hey Bob, before I attempt to answer this question I just want to let you in on a secret. If I could really answer this question, I would be retired on an island somewhere with few people but great access to brewing supplies. And not to spoil the ending; I don’t have a clue! But that never stopped a blowhard from writing.

This question can be viewed from several angles. Let’s start from a commercial perspective and assume you are bottling fully aged and carbonated beer. This sort of beer is not bottle conditioned, and should taste and appear about the same whether it is bottled, kegged, or canned. The rule of thumb with this sort of beer is that age does zero to improve beer. It’s all downhill after packaging because these beers are at their peak when packaged, oxygen pick-up is impossible to prevent and these styles are not done any favors by oxidation. I will never forget a crude story told by a brewer from a large brewery when I was young and impressionable; this brewer stated that the brewing department did everything in their power to brew the best beer before releasing it to the packaging department, where the beer was fussed up to varying degrees when bottled.

Let’s look at another commercial example with bottle-conditioned and cask-conditioned beers. These beers are most certainly not at their prime when packaged because the brewing process has not yet been completed. These beers come into condition in the package and morph during storage. Because these brews contain viable yeast, well-packaged beers are less likely to show the signs of oxidation caused by oxygen pick up during packaging. This argument has been over-played by many brewers who falsely believe that viable yeast prevents package oxidation. Oxidative reactions occur quickly and it is often the case where beer is oxidized before viable yeast can provide much help. That aside, bottle-conditioned beers are oftentimes more stable than their non-conditioned cousins.

This is where things become a bit more interesting and wine-like. Take a bottle-conditioned IPA as an example. This type of beer will come into condition, i.e., carbonate and flavor mature, yeast will begin to die and release enzymes, hop aroma compounds wane, especially if the beer had high package oxygen when bottled, and the beer slowly fades. Although bottle-conditioned IPAs can be great beers many months after packaging, the hop aromas will give way to a malt-centric balance. Most beer judges don’t love this sort of transition. Using your wine comparison, consider this analogous to a bottle of Pinot Grigio past its prime.

Other bottle-conditioned beers are much more resilient to age and some styles do indeed improve with age. These beers are usually higher alcohol beers with complex flavor profiles. Barleywines, barrel-aged beers, strong stouts, and big Scottish ales are examples of these brews. During aging, some alcohols slowly react with organic acids to form esters and some alcohols oxidize into aldehydes. These flavor compounds can add complexity to big beers that have enough umph to support the changes. Yeast autolysis, although usually a negative attribute in normal strength beers, can add desirable aromas to this sort of beer. But all good things come to an end; while maturation can be a slowly evolving process, aged beer, just like wine, can go from excellent to subpar in a flash. With that said, great beers usually don’t last long enough in the cellar once they hit that perfect pitch to ever hit the downhill slide.

The last sort of beer I will mention are funky beers. You really never know what’s going to happen with funky beer unless the beer is something routinely brewed with a known progression during aging. Some funky brews contain bacteria, some contain yeast, and others contain a mélange of bugs. Pediococci, Lactobacilli, Brettanomyces, odd Saccharomyces, Acetobacter, and even some enteric bacteria can be part of the wild beer roller coaster. Although many of these microbes come and go before packaging, there are often phases within the package where beer flavor may improve, followed by a down-turn in flavor, that may or may not be permanently bad. These can be odd brews to age because one is never quite sure of the optimal time to enjoy.

The one thing I can state with certainty is that most beers that taste bad today will probably taste bad tomorrow. If you have a batch that seems off and you hold on to it for periodic tasting, don’t hang on to it forever hoping it will improve. Most beers taste better today than they will tomorrow, so when you brew a great batch of homebrew enjoy it and get busy brewing a replacement!

Response by Ashton Lewis.