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Duffy85

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I've been working on some ideas for a new boch style beer. And been trying some barley wine which I really like. So I've been wonder, how long can you keep a beer in the secondary fermentor? Does all the yeast ever die off? To keep it all there and then not be able to carb it would be a waste to me. I just think it would be cool to have a beer that I can day " oh yeah, I started that 2 years ago, no biggie" lol. If it won't stay in the secondary, how long can you keep one bottled. A friend of mine said she had tried some mead that was 15 years old. Ok, that's all
 
I've been working on some ideas for a new boch style beer. And been trying some barley wine which I really like. So I've been wonder, how long can you keep a beer in the secondary fermentor? Does all the yeast ever die off? To keep it all there and then not be able to carb it would be a waste to me. I just think it would be cool to have a beer that I can day " oh yeah, I started that 2 years ago, no biggie" lol.

You can keep it a long time in secondary. Many beers will get worse after a while, but a big oaked barleywine or BDSA or Russian Imperial Stout can benefit from prolonged aging--I'm planning a barleywine soon that will stay in secondary until December. Certainly some Flanders Reds and other sours are bulk-aged for a year or more. Oktoberfests are traditionally brewed in the spring.

Generally with a long secondary, people re-yeast at bottling time (often by putting just a few grains of a clean dry yeast into each bottle).

OTOH, for a hop monster or wheat or rye beer, I'd want to drink it pretty young.
 
I've read that wheat beers don't age to well. Idk if I'm going to do it yet or not, but a thought I've been toying with. I've ready a couple barley wine recipes and they all call for two things of yeast, couple called for 3. Hmm. I'm going to have to do some more research. Nothing would be more of a drag than waiting a year or more to take a sip of somthing that makes prison wine taste good
 
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