What's a good beer to leave in fermenter for 6+ months?

Little back story is I just got a kegging setup, unfortunately I will not get to use it for another 6 months because I'm going to OSUT for the National Guard. Any ways I'm looking to do a beer and just leave it in fermenter or if I have time rack to secondary and leave it till I get back. Open to any style and thank you in advance for any information.

Might as well do a big Belgian, or a barleywine!

You could always secondary in the well-sanitized keg. Anything relatively-high-grav would likely do: Russian Imp Stout, Barleywine, Belgian Tripel. I would stay away from anything where hop character is super-important, though: an imperial/double IPA would likely still be OK, but intense hop flavor and aroma are notorious for not lasting well.

[Edit: meant to add] That way you can get home and just chill, hook the keg up to CO2 and go!

-Rich

Echoloc8 said:

You could always secondary in the well-sanitized keg. Anything relatively-high-grav would likely do: Russian Imp Stout, Barleywine, Belgian Tripel. I would stay away from anything where hop character is super-important, though: an imperial/double IPA would likely still be OK, but intense hop flavor and aroma are notorious for not lasting well.

-Rich

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Or if you do a IIPA you could dry hop the crud out of it when you got back. But I would do a Barley Wine or Russian Imperial Stout if it were me.

Thanks for your service by the way.

Something higher on the ABV scale, for sure. A big Belgian would be a great choice, as would a RIS, a barleywine, etc.

I did an imperial nut brown ale that spent five months between primary and secondary, and it was great.

Thanks for the replies, I've been wanting to do a barleywine so I guess I will give that a whirl. When I leave it in secondary do I just fill all head space to prevent oxidization, or put in keg and bleed the oxygen out?

Try a Russian Imperial Stout. It really needs to sit.

almost any high gravity brew. Russian imperial stout, Some porters.

When you transfer the Barley wine into your keg for storage just purge the empty head space well with CO2. It'll keep for a loooong time that way.
Cheers

Imperial stout you can leave for a year.

corty said:

Thanks for the replies, I've been wanting to do a barleywine so I guess I will give that a whirl. When I leave it in secondary do I just fill all head space to prevent oxidization, or put in keg and bleed the oxygen out?

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The latter. A keg needs a certain amount of head space to work well. Displace the oxygen with CO2 (search around here for "purging a keg") and you should be golden.

-Rich

I brewed my Christmas ale a few weeks ago. A 1.083 Old Ale with spices and dried fruits. I plan on letting it sit for at least 6 months although I may transfer it to a keg if I need the carboy.

Did you pick one yet?

Yeah, I believe I'm going to do a barleywine looking as we speak for a recipe. Any good one's you guys have tried all grain preferred.

This one is awesome. Still got a few bottles left from a year ago. :rockin:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f74/ag-water-into-barleywine-26724/

-Rich

sour