On Conditioning

It's a lovely thing that a beer improves with age. This is, I'm told, only true of beers with active yeast in them; don't bother aging run of the mill commercial beers. The benefits of aging are most notable in beers of exceptional strength, in which the residual sweetness and alcoholic hotness reduce as the beer matures. Hop flavors also mellow. Sharp, even astringent, hops can become smooth and pleasing with some time in the bottle. Perhaps unfortunately, hop aromas will not survive a long process of conditioning.

Stormtrooper is conditioning well. The hop aromas are still present and the residual sugars have diminished. I carbonated in the keg and then moved that to bottles, but it has gained carbonation since then. The head stands really nicely. The hops flavors has become a little more subtle, though I'd still say the beer tastes like hops. The carbonation thing was a bit of a surprise to me. That beer sat in fermenters for over a month, so I was surprised to find continuted fermentation.

I'm planning a barley wine, which I will ferment even longer than the IPA, probably a total of two months before bottling. I'm considering bottling with no priming sugar to let the beer get what carbonation it will from continued fermentation. I'm thinking about how I will get the barley wine to clarify, as I would really like that beer to be clear.