Bottle sooner or later?

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left field brewer

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I wasn't sure if this is where this thread should be, and it's probably been discussed many times before, but here goes. I made a belgian holiday ale with an OG of 1.064 with Wyeast 1214 and various spices. It has been in primary for about 16 days and I am getting ready to rack to secondary. Obviously, I was planning on having it ready, or fairly mature by the holidays. My question is whether it would be better to a.)leave in secondary just long enough to clear, then have longer time maturing in bottle; or b.)leave in secondary longer, say a month, then bottle? I'm not sure I understand the difference in conditioning in secondary (longer), or bottle conditioning other then the priming sugars being consumed by the remaining yeast. Ideas? Thanks.
 
Thanks for the reply Yuri, and thats what I originally planned to do. I just wasn't sure because I've read about belgians and highly spiced beers being left in secondary for several months(for flavors to mellow and meld), but I wasn't sure why the same thing wouldn't happen in the bottles after carbing. If going to keg, I could see why you'd leave it in secondary for quite a while, but not with the former. So if bottling, secondary is used solely for clearing? Or is there something else(benefit) to resting at cellar temps(~60) with no carb?
 
That doesn't look like a real heavy beer so a few weeks in the secondary whould be fine. All together, you'll have 30 +/- days of bulk conditioning. Many argue that bulk conditioning is better for beer than bottle conditioning.

Allow yourself 3-4 weeks at 72 degrees in the bottles to allow proper carbonation. That being the case, you could leave the beer in the secondary longer, unless you've got another batch coming down the pipleline (which you better have dammit) :D .
 
Of course. I plan on trying my hand at a double or triple decoction hefe with 3068, and a Fat Tire clone after that. I'll be getting more B-Bottles soon so room in primary or secondary won't be an issue(for a little while), and fermenter space is usually what limits me(and time away from work, of course). What is the reasoning people feel bulk conditioning is better? I'm just trying to obtain the best tasting most mature beer possible by the holidays. I don't really NEED the space right now, so I could leave it longer.
 
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