aging in bottle vs carboy

[loftybrewer]

SOOOOOO,
I want to clear out my carboys full of brew that should ideally sit for a while to attain its most desirable characteristics. What is really the difference between leaving it in the carboy for 6 months and priming/bottling and letting it sit for 6 months? FG is at 1.004 and I can't expect much to change over 6 months - if it does I'm assuming that even going down to 1 flat isn't going to give me bombs. Is it? More importantly, is there a difference between aging in the bottle and in the carboy? Isn't the same thing happening in both?

 

[djbradle]

Some say bulk aging is best but to each is own and in all cases subjective. I prefer to bottled sooner so as to have no need to re-yeast. Pushing 6 months is a need for fresh yeast at bottling. Plus you can sample as you go along without popping off the airlock and bung every time. If you get a good mixture in the bottling bucket I see no difference if all other variables stay the same for those stored bottles. Our tastes change so over the period of drinking a batch each bottle whether we've had kung pao chicken or cheerios is gonna taste different in a subtle way.