I am sure a lot of you guys know that I am currently into beer brewing. That is making my own beer. And I have started brewing beer since the end of January and I have some pretty old beers. Some of them is about 2 to 3 months old. I have to tell it, aging your beer really works. If you are into brewing beer, I am sure that you have heard expert brewers tell you that it’s good to age your beers. Well, they are not wrong. My Australian Pale Ale which I have made on February and has been in the bottle for over a month already. And it really really taste great. Much better than those I drank before. You can really taste the difference.

So my advice to all brewers is to keep your beers for sometime. You can age your beer in the fermenter or you can age your beer in the bottles. However, from what I know, aging your beers in the fermenter is better because it has more yeast. Why is “contact” with yeast important? First of all, the yeast eats the sugars in your wort and convert it to alcohol (and carbon dioxide). When the wort is full of simple sugars, the yeast will consume these simple sugars first and produce alcohol and of course there will be some other by-products which may not taste good. So, once the sugars in the wort is consumed, the yeast will start to feast on other more complex sugars and other by-products and this will produce alcohol which have more “complex” taste and flavours. Think of it as cleaning up after itself. Amazing stuff, these yeast. So, if you can, keep your beer in the fermenter for about a month or so. Even after it has finished bubbling (and the gravity remains the same), age it longer. I have kept my beer in the fermenter for over a month and you can really taste the difference. Plus, it will age faster in the fermenter. Do note that if you keep your beer in the fermenter for too long (like a few months), the yeast may die and produce yeasty off-flavours. From what the experts advice, keep your beer in the fermenter for not more than a month.

I know it’s not easy to age your beer in the fermenter. You need the fermenter to make more beer. And it takes some discipline to wait so long to bottle or keg your beer. For my first beer, I only left the wort in the fermenter for about 7 days and bottled it. However, I have learned my lesson. A little patience and you will get some really better tasting beers. Either that, or just get another fermenter.