Initially, I would ferment for 5 days then keg and could consume that day. I found the beers were not as good as they could be. Leaving them in the keg a month helped a lot. Now, I leave it in the temperature controlled ferementer at least 10 days then keg. Still beers are not at their peak. After asking about 20 pro brewers I found that the general consensus is an IPA peaks around 5 weeks, Pales a little sooner in about 3 weeks and wheat beers never peak ;D ;D ;D My smoked porter is OK after 2 weeks but is awesome after 3 months.