4-6 weeks in secondary?

Hi,
I'll be away for a month this spring/summer.
Any problems with leaving an American IPA for longer than 2-weeks in secondary? I'll be dry hopping.
From what I've read, longer = better.
I'm guessing leaving for a similarly long time in primary wouldn't be a good idea?
Thanks!

From what I am learning, longer is better in some cases. You might want to ensure temp stability before taking off and chancing your brew to the beer gods.

My only concern would be the dry hopping, I've not seen recommendations to dry hop for more than a week. I've read a great many posts from folks here who've left stuff in a secondary for multiple weeks or months at a time w/o issues. As Pubwilson noted you'll want to make sure your temps will be not be excessive with the summer months coming up.

Longer is always better but I would not dry hop until you know you are going to bottle it within 10 to 14 days!

Grinder12000 said:

Longer is always better but I would not dry hop until you know you are going to bottle it within 10 to 14 days!

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+1, if you haven't already started the dry hop, wait until you get back to add the hops. That long runs the risk of getting vegetal tastes from the hops.

Great, thanks for the advice. I'll just get a friend to add the dry hops 10 days before I return. That should earn him a beer or two!

The recipe I have for SN celebration ale has a secondary fermentation dry hop for 3-4 weeks. I dont think you would want to leave hops in for 2 months, but longer than 2 weeks im sure is fine.
With IPAs the trick is that the younger it is once it is ready to drink, the better it is to drink. They dont take long to peak condition, and will lose a lot of hoppy character over time. That being said, this beer is not going to be exactly ready to drink with the long secondary planned. All in all, I'd say you will be fine. :cross: If it isn't perfect, it is still drinkable.