I'm a bit biased as I'm not keen on bottle conditioned beers full stop, and do tend to find that if anything they tend to get a little over fizzy if left too long. Of course what constitues too long is open to debate. On Jim's forum there are people who swear by bottling and deliberately try and keep beers for a year or more.In terms of barrelling then depending on what type of barrel you use your beer will last between six months and a year and in my opinion just keeps getting better. If you have a white plastic barrel wrap it in a black bin bag to keep the light out.The one thing I think all homebrewers agree on is that the "ready in 2 weeks" claim on kits is tosh, whether you barrel or bottle give it six weeks at least.
