Reference: Ageing vs maturation
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The Oxford Companion to Beer definition of
aging of beer,
Aging Of Beer, an aspect of beer connoisseurship that is rapidly being rediscovered by modern breweries, beer enthusiasts, serious beer bars, and restaurants. Here we must distinguish aging from two other terms: maturation and staling. The term maturation refers to the relatively short controlled aging period employed by the brewery to transform freshly brewed “green beer” into a drink suitable for sale. Traditionally this maturation takes place over a period as short as 1 week or, in the case of certain beers, a few months. Staling refers to the onset of unwanted and unpleasant flavor, aroma, or appearance caused by inappropriate aging and/or exposure to heat, light, oxygen, and other harmful factors.
Beer aging, on the other hand, is deliberate, or at least felicitous. Many wine enthusiasts are of the opinion that wine is the only beverage that can benefit from aging, but this is not nearly true. In fact, the vast majority of wine is incapable of aging well and is designed to be consumed as soon as it leaves the winery. If aging is attempted, these wines will become stale. Precisely the same is true of beer—most beer is at its best the day it leaves the brewery and, depending on conditions, it has a limited shelf life, often measured in months and rarely exceeding a year. However, certain beers, kept properly, will improve and deepen with age, becoming increasingly complex and even profound.
Whereas most beer throughout history has been meant for consumption within days, weeks, or a few months, certain beer types have always been meant to age further. One of these is Belgium’s range of lambic beers, complex and acidic wheat beers entirely fermented by wild yeast and bacteria living in the brewery and its environs. See lambic and wild yeast. Lambics and similar beers have probably been made for more than 1,000 years and are traditionally aged in oak barrels. One or two years of aging in barrels is normal for lambic, and bottled styles such as Gueuze can age for many years further. Because of the interactions between its complex microflora, the aging of lambic is unique among beers. In some ways it resembles the aging and affinage of cheese, where continued action by bacteria and molds will help develop the cheese to the height of its flavors. In lambic, the microflora represent the biggest influence over the period of aging, but other factors are at work as well.
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