Surprisingly it tastes ready after a couple of months. I think that the spices really smooth it out and with the honey and using a yeastcake from a previous average gravity ale, it usually ferments to completion in about 2.5-3 weeks. I carbonate it in the keg at ambient house temps and leave it there as a mechanism to age it faster then toss it in the fridge for another couple of weeks and it's good to go after the usual "first pull" of settled yeast. If you bottle, it also ages gracefully as long as your water chemistry is up to snuff with enough RA to offset the dark grains. I shoot for the Dublin water profile and that seems to work for me.