How Malts Affect The Ageing Affect...

[bear09]

Hi All.

I have made some light beers (in color - simple base malts only) and some dark beers (cara malts and some small amounts of choc or roasted). I think I have discovered something about the way these beers age and how different malts can effect it.

I have found with the light beers, once they are carbed (in the keg) they are good to go. They are fresh and pretty delish right from the start.

With the darker beers I have found this not to be the case. It sort of takes a month or so for the flavors to mellow and blend. I have never brewed a lager.

Am I onto something legit here or is this pure crapola?

Cheers.

 

[Strange Brew]

Hi,

Firstly can I be a bastard and say 'How Malts Affect The Ageing Effect', but I shouldn't throw stones from my glass house, my spealling is tearable

This is an interesting topic. Do you use the same yeast for both? Do you use finnings in your dark ales?

My dark ales usually ferment a lot slower than my light ales and I need to leave it in the fermenter a lot longer for the yeast to mop up the diacetyle after fermentation has finished. That would have the biggest effect on flavour.

From what I can gather people really differ on their opinion of what difference it makes after that. One culprit that has been suggested is acetaldehyde which is what forms in the beer due to sunlight exposure. If your beer is exposed to sunlight in the fermenter and then stored in a dark place it has been suggested that this drops out over time. People differ greatly in their ability to detect acetaldehyde though so this also could explain the controversy.

Otherwise experiments have shown that appearance of beer affects how people perceive taste so if your darker beers have more proteins in which settle out in storage this may also contribute.

All I know is that a RIS left for six months tastes a lot better than it does straight out the fermenter.

Looking forward to people's comments on this.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

My experience has also been improved balance from dark beers with several months aging

I have a RIS in the fermenter at the moment and while the samples are tasty, it is sort of harsh... This seems to dissipate after a while in the bottle so next winter it should be a cracker of a beer! (Aging has to be the one good thing about bottling)

 

[mje1980]

Add your dark grains in the last 15 mins of the mash. Report back.

 

[argon]

In my experience the the lighter ales do hit their straps a little quicker than the darker beers. I filter all my beers and the lighter beers are good to go almost immediately whereas the darker beers need a couple of weeks to round out some rough edges... no idea why, just what i get.

 

[bear09]

Hi,

Firstly can I be a bastard and say 'How Malts Affect The Ageing Effect', but I shouldn't throw stones from my glass house, my spealling is tearable

This is an interesting topic. Do you use the same yeast for both? Do you use finnings in your dark ales?

My dark ales usually ferment a lot slower than my light ales and I need to leave it in the fermenter a lot longer for the yeast to mop up the diacetyle after fermentation has finished. That would have the biggest effect on flavour.

From what I can gather people really differ on their opinion of what difference it makes after that. One culprit that has been suggested is acetaldehyde which is what forms in the beer due to sunlight exposure. If your beer is exposed to sunlight in the fermenter and then stored in a dark place it has been suggested that this drops out over time. People differ greatly in their ability to detect acetaldehyde though so this also could explain the controversy.

Otherwise experiments have shown that appearance of beer affects how people perceive taste so if your darker beers have more proteins in which settle out in storage this may also contribute.

All I know is that a RIS left for six months tastes a lot better than it does straight out the fermenter.

Looking forward to people's comments on this.

Hi Man.

Affect and Effect - they have always thrown me to be honest. Ah well - bag me out. I post in this place as if I were talking to mates - that said if people were not having the odd dig I would not feel at home - keeps life fun.

I have used the same yeasts (typically US05 for these types of experiments) and consistently found the lighter beers to age faster (as in it takes less time for them to be nice).

Perhaps it something to do with the fermentation as you mentioned - good point there.

I NEVER expose my beers to sunlight during the brewing process. Certainly though once I am drinking the beer it sees a lot of the sun, and my feet up too!

 

[bear09]

In my experience the the lighter ales do hit their straps a little quicker than the darker beers. I filter all my beers and the lighter beers are good to go almost immediately whereas the darker beers need a couple of weeks to round out some rough edges... no idea why, just what i get.

Yep based on this I would say I am onto something here.

Cheers for the response.

 

[Strange Brew]

Hi Man.

Affect and Effect - they have always thrown me to be honest. Ah well - bag me out. I post in this place as if I were talking to mates - that said if people were not having the odd dig I would not feel at home - keeps life fun.

I have used the same yeasts (typically US05 for these types of experiments) and consistently found the lighter beers to age faster (as in it takes less time for them to be nice).

Perhaps it something to do with the fermentation as you mentioned - good point there.

I NEVER expose my beers to sunlight during the brewing process. Certainly though once I am drinking the beer it sees a lot of the sun, and my feet up too!

Yeah I was just having a stupid dig because when I was young I had the difference drilled into me at the expense of a lot of useful stuff I could have learned, like what ageing does to beer . Hope you had good hols.

 

[MarkBastard]

I find with amber beers that they are immediately great, then they lose a bit of maltiness, only for it to come right back a month or two later. After 6 months or so they get darker and maltier. This is not based on anything in any way scientific and I'm probably wrong.

 

[brett mccluskey]

Hi,

Firstly can I be a bastard and say 'How Malts Affect The Ageing Effect', but I shouldn't throw stones from my glass house, my spealling is tearable

This is an interesting topic. Do you use the same yeast for both? Do you use finnings in your dark ales?

My dark ales usually ferment a lot slower than my light ales and I need to leave it in the fermenter a lot longer for the yeast to mop up the diacetyle after fermentation has finished. That would have the biggest effect on flavour.

From what I can gather people really differ on their opinion of what difference it makes after that. One culprit that has been suggested is acetaldehyde which is what forms in the beer due to sunlight exposure. If your beer is exposed to sunlight in the fermenter and then stored in a dark place it has been suggested that this drops out over time. People differ greatly in their ability to detect acetaldehyde though so this also could explain the controversy.

Otherwise experiments have shown that appearance of beer affects how people perceive taste so if your darker beers have more proteins in which settle out in storage this may also contribute.

All I know is that a RIS left for six months tastes a lot better than it does straight out the fermenter.

Looking forward to people's comments on this.

Acetaldehyde is a fermentation by-product,generally caused by underpitching or overstressing the yeast.Also yeast strain determinate.It's not caused by exposure to sunlight,thats light strike.Acetaldehyde has the aroma/flavour of green apples and is pretty easy to detect IMO :icon_cheers:

 

[warra48]

It's surprising how long homebrew can last.

I tasted a long lost stubbie yesterday of an APA I brewed on 5/6/09. The colour was only 18.3 EBC, so it wasn't dark. IBU was 36.
It tasted fresh, very clean and smooth, carbonation was dense and persistent. There was still some hop aroma, and very recognisable Cascade hop flavour. You certainly wouldn't pick it as a beer which had been in the bottle for 19 months on a blind tasting.

Oddly enough, I started the fermentation with US05, but when it didn't kick off, I pitched a pack of Nottingham instead, which did the job of taking it from 1.056 to 1.008.

 

[BobtheBrewer]

It's surprising how long homebrew can last.

I tasted a long lost stubbie yesterday of an APA I brewed on 5/6/09. The colour was only 18.3 EBC, so it wasn't dark. IBU was 36.
It tasted fresh, very clean and smooth, carbonation was dense and persistent. There was still some hop aroma, and very recognisable Cascade hop flavour. You certainly wouldn't pick it as a beer which had been in the bottle for 19 months on a blind tasting.

Oddly enough, I started the fermentation with US05, but when it didn't kick off, I pitched a pack of Nottingham instead, which did the job of taking it from 1.056 to 1.008.

I gave up putting brew into bottles early last year (used to fill a keg and 4 bottles). I started AG about 6 weeks ago and as I attempt to build up my stocks I have been making inroads into about 6 dozen bottles dating back to mid 09. I have been pleasantly surprised by many of the beers which have obviously benefited from a long maturity(?)