Aging stout

So I'm looking for an excuse to brew up another batch. The problem is, I have plenty of beer to last into the fall, and I really don't want to have to come up with more bottles for yet another batch. I'd like to brew a 5 gallon batch of stout for winter and was considering brewing it soon and leaving it in secondary for quite a while. My question is how long in secondary is too long? Would it be beneficial to let it sit in a carboy that long or should I just be patient and wait a couple months?

Aging time depends quite a bit on your OG, the higher the OG the longer you can age in secondary. If you give us some insight on your recipe we can assist more.

McKBrew said:

Aging time depends quite a bit on your OG, the higher the OG the longer you can age in secondary. If you give us some insight on your recipe we can assist more.

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I'm throwing around a few ideas for my recipe, but it will likely involve 6 lbs. of DME, around 1.5 lbs. of steeping grains, 1 lb. of lactose (I'm not sure when to add this just yet), 1 oz. of hops, and I'll probably use White labs WLP023. The OG will probably not exceed 1.060, although I'm not opposed to stepping it up a bit to make it a better aging stout.

Take a look at this thread for some aging guidelines.

With that recipe, your beer probably will last fine until the Winter, but aging will not do a lot for it, either.

Of course, I say all this without knowing when you think Winter begins. For me, it's around January.


TL

TexLaw said:

Of course, I say all this without knowing when you think Winter begins. For me, it's around January.


TL

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Pfft, not even January. More like that week and a half between January and February. Supposed to be 91° today. Naturally, with the smog cover over downtown Houston, folk'll be sweating like crazy.

TexLaw said:

With that recipe, your beer probably will last fine until the Winter, but aging will not do a lot for it, either.

Of course, I say all this without knowing when you think Winter begins. For me, it's around January.


TL

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I'm thinking around the end of November. If I brew it at the end of this month, it would probably sit in secondary for three months, and then in bottles for a couple months on top of that. Maybe upping the gravity would be wise for something like that?

Just about any stout should hold up for six months, so you don't need to bump the gravity. However, if you want to, you have the time to age it properly.

In other words, do whatever sounds fun.


TL