Aging Beer...

Brewing Processes
1

I’m fairly new to brewing and have a general question of everyone’s collective experience…

I just did my second all grain batch and it has been fermenting for two weeks.  I need to age the beer now for another 2 weeks according to the instructions.  Is there any issues with both aging and carbonating at the same time?  Or does adding CO2 into the beer not allow it to “mature” properly?

If carbonating and aging at the same time is out, is there any different between aging in a glass carboy vs my 5 gallon soda keg?

I’d like to bring this particular brew to my next club meeting, but it won’t be ready in time if I don’t carbonate and age at the same time.  Thanks!

2

All aging means is that you are not drinking it :)…when you age in bottles with co2 it is okay…so, my guess is there is no difference…

3

What kind of beer is it?  What’s the recipe?

Unless you’re doing something with bacteria there shouldn’t be any reason it needs to age it for two weeks beyond primary without carbonation.  I would keg it, chill it, and force carbonate it.  It will be ready in plenty of time for your meeting.

4

I am doing the Inn Keeper kit from Northern Brewer. It is a straight grain recipe with no flavorings, etc added at the end of fermentation.

5

All they’re talking about in the instructions is bottle conditioning the beer.  If you’re going to add priming sugar, then you should wait two weeks with the beer at room temp so the yeast can carbonate it.  If you are planning to keg and force carbonate then that is not an issue.