More time in 2ndary or bottles?

My first batch of sweet stout (OG 1.062) has been in the primary for two days now and I'm trying to figure out how long to keep it in the 2ndary and bottles. It seems that the general consensus for stouts is pretty much "the longer, the better" as far as aging, but I have a December 17 deadline, which should give me about 5 weeks from the 1st day of 2ndary ferm. Given that, I was wondering whether it'd be better to leave it there for 3 weeks and in the bottles for 2 weeks or the reverse, split them up equally, or even something totally different? Any help dividing things up would be awesome.

captaineriv

I would go 2 weeks in secondary and 3 weeks in bottles. That should help ensure a good carb level and hopefully avoid any 'green' flavors from priming.

I asked a question similar to this once, but mine was phrased as a "is it better to age beer in the carboy or in the bottles?"

There was a mixed response, so I just went with the idea that aging is aging, and it doesn't matter which container it is in.

That said, I would give the beer 2 weeks in the secondary and 3 weeks in the bottles (this is because I always do three weeks in bottles anyway). I figure you're aging it for 5 weeks regardless, but you're giving it 3 of thoe 5 weeks in the bottles to allow for better carbonation.

It wouldbe sad to have under-carbonated beer because you opted to let it sit in the secondary for longer and had to cut the conditioning time short.

Anyway... just my $0.02.

-walker

I have a Christmas Ale aging in the secondary since the end of Sept. Maybe I should bottle to be sure I have sufficient yeast to carb.

gaelone said:

I have a Christmas Ale aging in the secondary since the end of Sept. Maybe I should bottle to be sure I have sufficient yeast to carb.

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Paging David_42... I believe it was David that said you could add some champagne yeast at bottling if you're concerned about too much yeast having flocculated. Says it is very neutral in flavor and results in a creamy head.

Yeah, I'm a real fan of champaign yeast for finishing darker ales. Good carbonation and a nitro-like head. More time in the bottle is better.

How much do you add at bottling time? do you make a regular starter? I have a stout that I just brewed this weekend, and I want to do this for mine.

I was told from a rep at lallemand/Danstar (and brewmaster of a bre-pub in Ohio), that letting your beer to ferment longer in the carboy lets more fusil oils leave your beer. He also said there should be enough yeast to carbonate even if left a year and with finings used. There are always some yeast floating in there. It might just take them longer to populate and thus carbonate.

More yeast added might help with carbonation time but it also tends to result in more sediment.

I added some to a batch of barlywine and have twice as much sediment as I usually do. Though I also bottled earlier than I would normally because I needed the carboys and my other two were still in storage, so some of the sedmiment might have been from that.

Denny's Brew said:

I was told from a rep at lallemand/Danstar (and brewmaster of a bre-pub in Ohio), that letting your beer to ferment longer in the carboy lets more fusil oils leave your beer.

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New brewer question...what are "fusil oils," and is it good or bad to have them in your beer?

Fusel alcohols (although many people call the oils) are heavy alcohols produced by yeasts in addition to ethyl alcohol. Methanol, isopropal, isoaml, etc. are always present in small quantities. Some of them have very low taste thresholds. A long secondary ferment (or laugering in the case of laugers) allows the yeast to convert them.

All of these alcohols can be changed into esters inside the yeast cells. The chemical reaction responsible for this conversion is called esterification. The specific alcohol that is esterified determines which ester is produced. If one starts with ethyl alcohol, one ends up with ethyl acetate after the esterification reaction. Similarly, isoamyl alcohol is esterified to the banana-like isoamyl acetate.

This is good in some styles, bad in others.