Decanting A Beer

I have heard of people decanting wines, and now even beers. I decided to try this out, but need to know a few things. Help me out, gang.

After bottling a little more than 2 full cases of my Apricot IPA, I needed a place to put the rest! So I filled my decanter with my Apricot IPA.

This beer has been sitting on 2 lbs of fresh, depitted, pasturized apricots for one month.

Now that it is in the decanter:

1) How long should I let it sit before drinking?

2) Should it 'decant' in room temp or the fridge?

3) Does it matter that priming sugar is now in the decanting beer?

I tasted this beer already (flat and warm) and it tastes great. It definately needs some time to mature still, but you can tell it is going to be an excellent drink.

5gB

Can your decanter hold pressure? Because I would imagine the priming sugar in it would start to ferment...

My understanding about decanting beer is in reference to a bottle conditioned beer in a larger (than 1 serving) bottle or growler.
It needs to be decanted into a serving vessel because repeated pourings from the bottle will put all the yeast and sediment into suspension and then into your glass.
The idea is to have a clean pour from the bottle to the pitcher, than into glasses as needed.

What's in your decanter now probably won't carbonate, which is good because if it does it might break the decanter.

No, my decanter is not designed to contain carbonation. Dealing with the sediment in suspension was one of the reasons I put the rest of this beer in the decanter in the first place. When I pour later, it will be much cleaner, because the sediment in suspension will have settled to the bottom.

I was thinking about that priming sugar too. If the decanter is sitting out at room temp, the priming sugar is definately going to ferment (though not carbonate the beer like in a bottle). If i put the decanter in the fridge, fermentation should cease, and I will just have a decanter full of cool, fresh, apricot IPA.

I was just wondering about aging this beer further in this decanter. It doesn't have a sealed opening, but I was able to easily cover the opening with plastic wrap. This should give the beer enough room to covert remaining sugars (and that priming sugar), and keep out bugs, extra bacteria, etc.

5gB

I don't see the point of this. When the yeast eats the sugar in order to carb your beer it will generate sediment.

So.. Why not just leave your beer longer in the secondary if you need it clearer. There is NO way to get around sediment unless you keg and force carb.

If you let the priming sugar ferment it will raise the ABV, but shouldn't impart any flavors, and it's such a small amount of sugar that the change in ABV will be insignificant.

If you put it in the fridge it will continue to clear. I'm not so sure about being fresh because contact with oxygen will cause oxidation. If you could attach an airlock and keep it at room temp for a while it might offgas enough CO2 to prevent oxidation.

In any case it will be flat.

On a side note. In this month's Celebrator they're an article on the German pilsner 7 minute pour. I'll see if I can find on online version of that.

I think your decanting will not do anything for you. Go ahead and drink up the beer in the decanter. If you don't like it flat blend it will something. I think a black and tan with that apricot beer would be quite nice.

Once the rest of your apricot beer is carbonated as you like it put them all in the fridge for a couple weeks and they'll clear up nicely for you.