Malt selection influencing aging time?

[kanzimonson]

I've been noticing that my beers made with pilsener malt (usually using the Franco-Belges brand) seem to require more aging time than say, a beer made with Maris Otter or even American two-row.

It's probably worth mentioning that I've noticed this in the course of mostly making light colored "Belgian" styles - blondes, golden strongs, wits, saisons. So there might be multiple factors here. One, it could just be a function of paler beers having less stuff that hides the green beer flavors. Or it could be something about the characterful yeasts I'm using that require some toning down.

I pay diligent attention to pitch rate, oxygenation, and fermentation temp, and my beers attenuate fully. Just wanted to make it clear that I'm not talking about things like diacetyl or acetaldehyde being reduced - it's more a "softness" that comes over the beer after a few weeks. You know, the classic "flavors melding harmoniously."

I'm seeing a requirement of about 4-6 weeks of cold aging for these beers to come into something special. In one case of a strong saison, it was still getting better and better over 4 months when I finally kicked the keg. Compare this to my American and English styles that I'm usually drinking 8 days after brewing, though they're probably at a peak around 14 days.

Anybody experience something similar or have some thoughts?

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I've noticed this as well with my german/belgian styles that use primarily pilsner malt. Not even just the pale styles though, it came up in my dunkelweizens, the darker beers seemed to age that greenness out quicker than the pale styles. It is definitely the 6 week mark before the beer starts to stabilize.

(I do go with the minimum 90 minute boil when using pilsner so it couldn't be DMS related)

 

[kanzimonson]

Cool, that's about what I expected for the darker beers. I've made some dubbels in the past, but I just used a blend of two-row and maris otter at the time because I was afraid of getting that super-grainy character. But I like how soft the flavor of this Franco-Belges malt is - I'm looking forward to making some more authentic Trappist beers.

It's been a frustrating realization because I'm so used to brewing and being able to drink something immediately after fermentation. I just need to treat these more like a barleywine and build up a nice pipeline of beers on tap so I feel like I can spend some time aging beers.