Does Beer Get Better as It Ages?

It’s a question for all brewers, to age or not to age? Does beer get better as it ages? Like with most questions we cover on this site, the answer is “it depends.”

Beer certainly can get better as it ages. It can also go horribly wrong.

So, what’s the difference?

The Push for Freshness

First, let’s talk about the push for freshness in beer, which has greatly overshadowed the quest for a fine, aged beer.

That’s because most beer is indeed much better when drunk as fresh as possible. Indeed, in the case of lower ABV beers that are lighter in flavor, you want to serve your beer close to the source, if not in house, and quickly.

Why?

As beer ages, its volatile compounds will change, and they change rapidly.

Proteins break down, oxidation kicks in, and hop flavors lessen over time.

Many brewers will in fact push drinkers to drink their beer as soon as they buy it, like take it home and drink it now.

There’s a reason Budweiser has a “born on date” on the bottle. Pliny the Younger by Russian River Brewing Company, which is brewed seasonally, is offered for only two weeks at the brewpub in Santa Rosa, California, and each drinker has only three hours in the pub and is allowed only three Youngers. They take their freshness seriously. Stone Brewing in San Diego says they brew their beer “specifically not to last.”

So you see there is an insistence on freshness that makes you wonder if aging is even worth it.

Temperamental Beer

It’s tricky.

The ingredients in beer and the nature of brewing make this concoction temperamental. Aging beer is always a sort of crap shoot, with the brewer crossing their fingers that they will get the results they have prepared for.

What is interesting about the temperamental nature of beer is that it actually takes quite a while to become beer. Unlike wine, which can technically be completely fermented and ready to drink in under a month (not taking into consideration the aging process, of course), some types of beer on the inside of the timeline can take up to 2 months in the primary and an additional 3-4 months in the secondary.

Realize, of course, that with wine, we are dealing with a single fruit that has a simple sugar, fructose.

With beer, we must deal with grain, which is a much more complex fermentable carbohydrate, and often multiples grains – oats, wheat, barley, etc.

The fermentation process with beer produces hundreds of secondary metabolites in addition to the alcohol and carbon dioxide created by yeast, and some of those metabolites are not so pleasant to drink – like acetaldehyde, which can actually make you sick.

 

So, we don’t call it “aging,” but in order to smooth out complex and off flavors, beer should be ideally left for several months to have secondary and even tertiary fermentation in order to settle down the temperamentality.

What Happens When You Age Beer

At first, as beer ages, the yeast is performing a clean up job, mopping up off flavors, making the beer crisper, and cleaner. Also, sediment will drop, proteins will smooth out, and cloudiness will get smoother, so you will have a fresh, bready beer that is alive with flavor. It really is about striking that perfect balance of freshness.

Also read: Does aging beer increase alcohol by volume (ABV)?

For lighter beers with less alcohol, once you pass the freshness point, the beer begins to go stale, no matter what you do.

Furthermore, the addition of hops contributes greatly to a bittering effect that is not pleasant for anyone the longer the beer sits. Remember that hops are a fresh herb plucked right from their vine and added to beer within hours, which is why beer production must be done close to the site of the hop vine. Herbs in food don’t age well.

Now, with stronger beers that have a higher alcohol volume, the work the yeast does, cleaning and mopping, can be an asset in aging.

Certain flavors will get cleared away and new ones will come to the center. Oxidation can even have a positive effect.

Particularly with wilder beers, those made with wild yeasts like Brettanomyces, it may even be in your interest to age the beer to allow the fullest complexity of the beer to work its way out, ridding all off flavors over a period of months or even years and bringing into the spotlight the best that wild yeast can present.

How to Age Beer

If you do decide to experiment with aging beer, called “cellaring,” be sure you store your beer in dark glass, casks, or metal containers. Exposure to UV light in clear glass can make a beer go “skunk” in no time, destroying your efforts at aging.

Store your beer in cool, dark place where it won’t be moved or agitated during its aging process.

Furthermore, ensure your beer is stored upright and that you keep your temperature consistent, ideally close to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember, beer is volatile, and even slight shifts in circumstances can throw off your flavor and aroma profile.

If you store your beer in small containers, like dark glass bottles, you can open one up once every couple of weeks or so to test how the process is going.

Should You Age Beer?

The question of whether you should age beer is a highly personal one for each brewer. As to whether beer gets better as it ages, the answer is usually no. Beer is not wine. But, remember, it can be, and it is certainly worth experimenting with because a temperamental beverage like beer should be explored and tried and fiddled with to see just what you might come up with.

Do also be sure to track your process and your progress every step of the way so you can repeat it if you have resounding success.

If not, chalk it up to a lesson learned, and try aging.

Cheers!

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