Best way to age beer

What is the best way to age a beer? Primary, secondary, bottle or a combination of them all. Cold or room temperature? New to brewing and looking for your opinions and wisdom on this subject.

Also, how long do you leave the beer at each step?

It all depends on the beer. Bigger beers can benefit from more conditioning. Some beers like hefeweizen are best when they're younger and shouldn't be conditioned long at all.

In general, I like to bulk age for about 3 weeks before bottling. Then you need at least 3 weeks in the bottle (at 70 degrees F) to properly carbonate.

I've found that bulk aging seems to work faster than aging in the bottle after carbonation. For example, I'll brew a beer, do the usual time in the carboy and then bottle. After 3 weeks it'll taste green and won't taste right for another month or two. Then when I brew the same recipe and give it an extra week or so in the carboy and it's good after the 3 weeks in the bottle.

As for primary or secondary... that's really up to you. I still use a secondary, mainly because I'm kind of sloppy with my siphon and tend to suck up some of the yeast cake so the secondary lets that settle back out. TONS of folks here have totally given up on using a secondary and just leave it in the primary for 3 weeks or so.

BIG high gravity beers can definitely benefit from extended time in the carboy for a month or more before bottling. In that case, I'd definitely go with a secondary after a month or so.

Nice advise, cat. I'm new myself and was wondering the same. Ive had great experience aging bottles from another home brewer, they shifted to something strangely awesome and divine around two years in bottle, no way of knowing what they originally were unfortunately. I'm currently aging a brewers best weizenbier kit in secondary for a month or so just to see how that turns out. EXPERIMENT!

I've had bottles of my saison and my chocolate stout after a couple years that were freaking amazing. Then I've had bottles of my brown ale that were ok. My apa after a year or more... bleah. Generally... hefes and wheat beers are best very young. Anything with hop aroma are best somewhat young and fresh. High gravity beers or beers that derive a lot of character from their yeast can be very interesting as they get older.

Thanks Cat. My first batch I made last month I had in the primary for two weeks, secondary for a week, and bottle for two weeks. I did notice that it became better with time. Unfortunately I didn't have the patience to let I age....it was my very first batch. I have about 16 bottles left that I am going to try and let age in the bottle for a bit longer. I just made a new Extra Pale Ale last week and I am going to try and leave it in the primary for a month. Do you think it is more important to primary on the trub longer than secondary to let the yeast clean up after themselves?

Also, vanilla and other spices will fade with aging so try them at intervals to see what your recipes sweet spot is.

BrewerBS said:

Thanks Cat. My first batch I made last month I had in the primary for two weeks, secondary for a week, and bottle for two weeks. I did notice that it became better with time. Unfortunately I didn't have the patience to let I age....it was my very first batch. I have about 16 bottles left that I am going to try and let age in the bottle for a bit longer. I just made a new Extra Pale Ale last week and I am going to try and leave it in the primary for a month. Do you think it is more important to primary on the trub longer than secondary to let the yeast clean up after themselves?

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Your extra pale ale probably won't benefit from the month in the primary, at least not as much as a darker beer. Assuming you fermented at the proper temperature you could leave it for 10 days to 2 weeks, dry hop it for 3 to 7 more days and then bottle it. You aren't trying to meld the complexity of the dark grains since you should have none in a extra pale.

BrewerBS said:

Thanks Cat. My first batch I made last month I had in the primary for two weeks, secondary for a week, and bottle for two weeks. I did notice that it became better with time. Unfortunately I didn't have the patience to let I age....it was my very first batch. I have about 16 bottles left that I am going to try and let age in the bottle for a bit longer. I just made a new Extra Pale Ale last week and I am going to try and leave it in the primary for a month. Do you think it is more important to primary on the trub longer than secondary to let the yeast clean up after themselves?

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Thing is, every beer is different. Even "same recipe" batches can have significant variables that add up to differences in flavor. Freshness of extract, hops and yeast. Yeast strain. Fermentation temperatures. Water chemistry differences. Variables in any grains used. Mash temperatures for all-grain. Every variable can have an impact, and we can't control all of them. It's not about finding some magic number of weeks in this or that, it's about observation, patience and tinkering. "Secondary", as described by most folks on here is just bulk aging in a second carboy after fermentation is complete. True secondary is a transfer just after the high kreusen (peak fermentation) begins to fall. This allows the rest of the ferment to continue off of the trub, but still leaves behind residual yeast to "clean up" or absorb off flavor compounds. Those who transfer when the beer reaches final gravity are really just bulk aging in a second vessel, and depending when they transfer may be preventing their yeast from the chance to do this clean up. Read the book "Yeast", by Chris White and Jamil Z. It will really help you understand the variables that are most important to a quality ferment. It's all about yeast health and performance. Anyone can give you their preferred number of days or weeks or preference of secondary or primary only, but understanding the true beer makers, yeast, is the true path to great beer!
:rockin:

Demus said:

Thing is, every beer is different. :rockin:

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This! I suggest letting your taste buds be your guide. After years of brewing, I still find it amazing how the beer changes with time and temperature.

RM-MN said:

Your extra pale ale probably won't benefit from the month in the primary, at least not as much as a darker beer. Assuming you fermented at the proper temperature you could leave it for 10 days to 2 weeks, dry hop it for 3 to 7 more days and then bottle it. You aren't trying to meld the complexity of the dark grains since you should have none in a extra pale.

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So the darker or bigger the beer the more time benefits it in a primary? Sorry for the ridiculous questions but I'm pretty green with brewing. I brewed my EPA from an extract kit. Wasn't planning on dry hopping. Maybe I just need to move to 10 gallons and do 5 one way and 5 another way to get a comparison? Wife would love that!

Aging in general is more beneficial for bigger, more complex beers. Any beer can benefit from some extra time in primary depending on how clean the ferment was tho. If the pitch rate and or temperature was off there may be some off flavor inducing compounds that could be absorbed by the settling yeast. This is not unique to big beers. Sorry to say there's no cut and dry answer here. There's just no way to know if your beer needs an extra week on the yeast, so why not give it one just in case?
Aging is more about the mellowing of alcohol over extended periods. I've got a Barleywine I did back in April 2011 that I just had a bottle of and it better now than it was last year. It's an 11%-er and the alcohol has cooled, as the dried fruit and toffee flavors have moved forward. It was good at 6 months, but now it's awesome!

BrewerBS said:

I just made a new Extra Pale Ale last week and I am going to try and leave it in the primary for a month. Do you think it is more important to primary on the trub longer than secondary to let the yeast clean up after themselves?

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As RM said, maybe not so much with your pale ale. With a beer like that you kind of have to balance two things. A little aging can make the beer better, but the longer it sits in an open container (a carboy with an airlock is still an open container) the more hop aroma you'll lose to the air. Something like that I'd give a little time for the yeast to clean up byproducts and for the beer to clear and then bottle it up.

Demus said:

"Secondary", as described by most folks on here is just bulk aging in a second carboy after fermentation is complete. True secondary is a transfer just after the high kreusen (peak fermentation) begins to fall. This allows the rest of the ferment to continue off of the trub, but still leaves behind residual yeast to "clean up" or absorb off flavor compounds.

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Aging, cleaning up and clarifying. All good things to do, depending on the beer. Also beers just seem to age better in bulk than they do in individual bottles. So if it's not something that can lost character like hop aroma, bulk aging is a good thing!

This is something that had been confusing me for a while and i'd like to get cleared up. People tend to give examples or beer aged a short vs. a long time in bottles or a long time vs a short time in primary but not about total aging time covering both.

What's the difference between a beer aged two weeks in a primary and four weeks in a bottle, vs. three and three vs four and two. (ie all with six weeks aging)?

woozy said:

This is something that had been confusing me for a while and i'd like to get cleared up. People tend to give examples or beer aged a short vs. a long time in bottles or a long time vs a short time in primary but not about total aging time covering both.

What's the difference between a beer aged two weeks in a primary and four weeks in a bottle, vs. three and three vs four and two. (ie all with six weeks aging)?

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That's a hard question to answer because each beer is different on its own so making the same beer over and over may not answer it either. In general, the more time on the yeast cake the faster the beer matures and the less time needed in the bottles. When you move the beer off the yeast cake, be it to secondary or to bottles the maturing process slows because there is so much less yeast to do the work.

Different beers need different amounts of time to mature too. My Belgian Wit needed little time to mature and may be losing some of its best qualities sitting in the bottles while a stout that I made last year is really good.

woozy said:

This is something that had been confusing me for a while and i'd like to get cleared up. People tend to give examples or beer aged a short vs. a long time in bottles or a long time vs a short time in primary but not about total aging time covering both.

What's the difference between a beer aged two weeks in a primary and four weeks in a bottle, vs. three and three vs four and two. (ie all with six weeks aging)?

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Something that comes with experience. Experiment around and see what works for you.

BrewerBS said:

So the darker or bigger the beer the more time benefits it in a primary? Sorry for the ridiculous questions but I'm pretty green with brewing. I brewed my EPA from an extract kit. Wasn't planning on dry hopping. Maybe I just need to move to 10 gallons and do 5 one way and 5 another way to get a comparison? Wife would love that!

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It's not the color that determines aging need- but often complex flavors need a bit more time to meld and come together. Roasted flavors, oak, etc, can take a bit more time to come together. But a very light colored beer, say, a Belgian tripel, can need a couple of months to get to its sweet spot due to the higher ABV.

woozy said:

This is something that had been confusing me for a while and i'd like to get cleared up. People tend to give examples or beer aged a short vs. a long time in bottles or a long time vs a short time in primary but not about total aging time covering both.

What's the difference between a beer aged two weeks in a primary and four weeks in a bottle, vs. three and three vs four and two. (ie all with six weeks aging)?

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A six week old beer is a six week old beer, regardless of the vessel.

Yooper said:

A six week old beer is a six week old beer, regardless of the vessel.

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It's been my experience that bulk aging conditions a beer faster than aging in a bottle. I've experimented with it and it's worked for me every time.

ChshreCat said:

It's been my experience that bulk aging conditions a beer faster than aging in a bottle. I've experimented with it and it's worked for me every time.

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As a winemaker, I think it's been the reverse for me. Aging in a carboy seemed to make the entire batch "even" but it may slow the aging just a tiny tiny bit. The difference was really not appreciable, though.

Yooper said:

A six week old beer is a six week old beer, regardless of the vessel.

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That's kind of what I was assuming. Thanks for clearing that up.

It's just that so many people have such strong and insistent opinions of "how long you should bottle" and isn't that missing the point in that the issue is how long you should age not how long you bottle? Isn't the date you begin bottling and thus the day you calculate bottling time rather arbitrary and thus the amount of time spent bottling (other than as a factor of the overall time spent aging) pretty much irrelevant?

Yooper said:

As a winemaker, I think it's been the reverse for me. Aging in a carboy seemed to make the entire batch "even" but it may slow the aging just a tiny tiny bit. The difference was really not appreciable, though.

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Ahh, I've only done it with beer. Other than Ed Wort's accursed concoction, I don't have much wine experience. As I proved about a week ago in another thread.

woozy said:

That's kind of what I was assuming. Thanks for clearing that up.

It's just that so many people have such strong and insistent opinions of "how long you should bottle" and isn't that missing the point in that the issue is how long you should age not how long you bottle? Isn't the date you begin bottling and thus the day you calculate bottling time rather arbitrary and thus the amount of time spent bottling (other than as a factor of the overall time spent aging) pretty much irrelevant?

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You are picking up some great info here, just be careful seeking one size fits all answers. Aging is indeed a factor in most beers, and the benefits will occur in any vessel. The "cleaning up" many refer to occurs best on a fair amount of yeast, which makes a bottle a less than ideal place. However, a good healthy ferment from properly pitched yeast held at ideal temperatures shouldn't have much if any of the off flavor compounds that are absorbed. In that case, aging in the bottle will have the same effect as bulk aging. But how do you know? That's the crux. I feel it's best to leave a brew on the yeast at least a week after final gravity is reached just in case. Then, if bottling I bottle condition at room temp until proper carbonation is reached the store cool indefinitely. If you bulk age excessively long bottle conditioning may take longer due to lowered amounts of yeast.
I keg most batches however so I can test the aging process whenever I want with a pull of the tap! ;-)