4 Months in primary = success

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silvervan83

silvervan83

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I got EXTRA LAZY. (and have been broke for some time... any contractors out there know exactly what I'm talking about). So I left 5 gallons of wheat beer in the primary for a little over 4 months. I recently aquired a couple of cornie kegs and finally got the stuff racked to one of them. ............ Wow. The ABSOLUTE BEST BEER i have ever brewed. OG 1.052 - FG 1.004!!!

I'm not gonna be posting anything else tonight cause I'm getting schnockered on this stuff. Wish you could be here.
 
What was the flavor like? I would expect a lot less of the interesting wheat yeast characteristics, clove/banana.

I'm drinking a wheat right now where I purposefully enhanced the banana aspect and I found that with aging the flavor dropped off a lot. That aging occurred in a keg though.
 
Orfy said:
Another nail in the coffin of the unnecessary Secondary. :p
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+1. My 5 gallon carboys only get used for beers that need to be dry hopped/fruit or mead. Otherwise it's primary fermentation then conditioning in the keg.

I've left beer on yeast for 2 months before with no off-flavors (verified by an objective BJCP judge, not just my own subjective analysis). It still good practice to get beer off yeast when it's done fermenting, but this example illustrates that some of these rules are subject to interpretation.

Cheers! :mug:
 
I'd recommend new brewers use secondary until they have the experience to decide for themselves. If it is needed or not.

In my opinion and experience it's pretty pointless doing it unless there is a specific reason.
 
Orfy said:
I'd recommend new brewers use secondary until they have the experience to decide for themselves. If it is needed or not.

In my opinion and experience it's pretty pointless doing it unless there is a specific reason.
Click to expand...

+1. Wise recommendation, Orfy. :mug:
 
FireBrewer said:
I've left beer on yeast for 2 months before with no off-flavors (verified by an objective BJCP judge, not just my own subjective analysis). It still good practice to get beer off yeast when it's done fermenting, but this example illustrates that some of these rules are subject to interpretation.

Cheers! :mug:
Click to expand...

+1 my bjcp feedbacks on the beers last year that were left for a month were what convinced me that this long primary had merit. I thought my beers tasted and looked better than the batches that I secondaried (some of my house beers overlap so I can often do a side by side comparison of batches.)

But the comments about clarity, and crispness of those primary only beers that I entered, as opposed to the secondaried ones, stood out on comments for two separate contests last summer.

Then I started seeing the stuff in Palmer, and what some of you guys were saying that backed up the idea that a secondary is really an option AND there is a great deal of merit to letting beers sit on the yeast for a few extra weeks, to allow the yeast to clean their messes.
 
Revvy said:
+1 my bjcp feedbacks on the beers last year that were left for a month were what convinced me that this long primary had merit. I thought my beers tasted and looked better than the batches that I secondaried (some of my house beers overlap so I can often do a side by side comparison of batches.)

But the comments about clarity, and crispness of those primary only beers that I entered, as opposed to the secondaried ones, stood out on comments for two separate contests last summer.

Then I started seeing the stuff in Palmer, and what some of you guys were saying that backed up the idea that a secondary is really an option AND there is a great deal of merit to letting beers sit on the yeast for a few extra weeks, to allow the yeast to clean their messes.
Click to expand...

So is it okay to add gelatin to the primary before you bottle/keg?
 
Orfy said:
I'd recommend new brewers use secondary until they have the experience to decide for themselves. If it is needed or not.

In my opinion and experience it's pretty pointless doing it unless there is a specific reason.
Click to expand...

not to hijack this thread, but now that you bring it up orfy... what are experience points that i need to learn in order to decide? what am i looking for that can help me get better at this?
 
williec30 said:
not to hijack this thread, but now that you bring it up orfy... what are experience points that i need to learn in order to decide? what am i looking for that can help me get better at this?
Click to expand...

Brew lots of beer be not afraid to make mistakes. Drink them when you do. and learn by doing.
 
williec30 said:
not to hijack this thread, but now that you bring it up orfy... what are experience points that i need to learn in order to decide? what am i looking for that can help me get better at this?
Click to expand...

I think the only way you'll know is if you try it for yourself. Brew a batch and leave it for a month...preferably something you have brewed before, or similar enough, or even split a batch in half, so you can compare, both clarity and taste.

Like Yooper or Firebrewer, or Orfy or myself who have experienced it have said on various threads, the only times we secondary is in certain situations that involve the adding of something like hops, or fruit into the secondary...or if we've brewed something like a pumpkin beer, with a huge amount of goob/trub that we want to get the beer off of...
 
My point is that if you get several brewers and ask them and it's likely that they will tell you different things. You'll probably never get a definitive answer.

Until you have your own experiences as to whether it makes a difference it's probably better to stick to conventional methods that cover a wide range of brewing methods, styles and ingredients.

In short to 1,2,3 method covers more scenarios than the ?,? method.
 
Reno_eNVy_446 said:
So is it okay to add gelatin to the primary before you bottle/keg?
Click to expand...

I have been practicing at this with no ill effects. Of course, I never re-use my cakes (they always goto compost). Getting the finings mixed in without aerating is the challenge. I have found that by using a funnel and a hose dipped under the liquid line works good to avoid the splashings. Before that, I would always rack onto the gelatin to mix..

I haven't done this much and have lately been working more at step mashes targeted to breakdown more of the haze forming proteins.
 
It may just be the tolerance of a Wheat beer. I brewed an American Wheat two weeks ago and after two days in the keg, I sampled it.....it tasted great. The next night me and a couple friends drained the keg dry. So 16 days from brew day and the beer was good. Of course this is a rare event, I have had beers that didn't start tasting good for two months.
 
Revvy said:
Like Yooper or Firebrewer, or Orfy or myself who have experienced it have said on various threads, the only times we secondary is in certain situations that involve the adding of something like hops, or fruit into the secondary...or if we've brewed something like a pumpkin beer, with a huge amount of goob/trub that we want to get the beer off of...
Click to expand...

Orfy said:
My point is that if you get several brewers and ask them and it's likely that they will tell you different things. You'll probably never get a definitive answer.

Until you have your own experiences as to whether it makes a difference it's probably better to stick to conventional methods that cover a wide range of brewing methods, styles and ingredients.

In short to 1,2,3 method covers more scenarios than the ?,? method.
Click to expand...

thank you gentlemen... if i could regurgitate; until you brew multiples of the same beer, only then will you understand what it means to wait (X) amount of time to get (Y) result. there is no quick answer, every beer (and brewer) will be different, and hence the myriad of methods.
 
Correct.

In short. It's your beer, do it how you want.
Until you know what you want follow the majority regardless of the advice.

That's the safe way anyway.

I do many things that I would not recommend to newer brewers and most experience ones.
 
for that matter, if a given beer is ok for (or even improved by) sitting in primary for a long time, is there any reason why you couldn't dry hop directly in the primary? (adding the hops after fermentation is fully complete)
 
ericm said:
for that matter, if a given beer is ok for (or even improved by) sitting in primary for a long time, is there any reason why you couldn't dry hop directly in the primary? (adding the hops after fermentation is fully complete)
Click to expand...

Some people do, it's kinda rare because people until the last couple years have stuck with the "get the beer off the yeast" mindset, so customarily it's been done in secondary. But there's no reason why once fermentation is complete you couldn't dry hop in primary, especially if you are foregoing the secondary.
 
irate vermin said:
What was the flavor like? I would expect a lot less of the interesting wheat yeast characteristics, clove/banana.
.
Click to expand...

I've only drank about a gallon of it (in the last hour) so I can't tell you about every wonderful flavor yet. But it does have a nice citrus notes and is pretty well balanced. Less flowery (on purpose). I'm just in love with it.
 

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