I just boiled an ancient ale

last weekend and it is in my fermentor. Here's my question. I used bittering herbs instead of hops for flavoring and aroma. I have read where hops is a natural preservative for beer.

How long can I leave my gruit in the secondary before I bottle?

Is it better to bottle early and let it age in the bottle or the secondary.

I think this ale is going to need some time and I just don't know what my timing issues are.

OG per recipe is 1.050 and I got an adjusted 1.047

I do not know what the FG is yet.

Thanks

_____________________________________________
Bottled: St. Arnold's Xmas Ale Clone
Secondary: Chimay Red Clone
Primary: Gruit Ancient Ale
On Deck:

Really? No one knows the answer?

I would not use a secondary just age in primary for a month. It is better to bulk age in my opinion Rather than in bottles.

cherrob123 said:

Really? No one knows the answer?

Click to expand...

Nope, because there is not one. I know someone that has left beer in a secondary for over a year...

so... as long as you want.

Me, I would leave it in primary 1 month, then pull it to secondary and sample it every few weeks or months until it tastes decent and then keg it or bottle it.

split it up. bottle some and leave the rest in the primary for a month then bottle.

see what tastes better, rinse & repeat.

Have you tried searching the forum for other gruit or ancient ale threads?

I haven't had any experience with them myself and don't know how stable they are. Alcohol is a preservative too don't forget.

I would look around for other threads about gruits and see if any of them talk about aging and conditioning techniques.

Edit: here's a thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/ye-olde-gruit-ale-237269/ you need to put gruit in quotes or the search thinks you mean fruit

Thanks for the responses. I am reading all kinds of ideas and most of them suggest a 21-30 day stay in the primary.

My air lock has already stopped bubbling. I pitched my yeast five days ago. I'm certainly not convinced that it's done fermenting though.

I think I"ll try Zacjack's idea of bottling some and leaving the rest in the primary. If I do that, it gives me a reason to buy another primary...lol.

Thanks guys.