Best way to age for extended period

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Matteo57

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So I am doing a big stout with coffee and chocolate (OG around 1.095) and It is suppose to age for around 6 months or so. For a beer that you want to age that long or longer, is it usually best to bottle it after about a month to a month and a half and then age in the bottle or age in the carboy? I have heard that if you age in the carboy you are more prone to get off flavors due to the oxygen in the head space of the carboy but I have also heard that aging something that long in the carboy is fine. Anyone weigh in on this? I haven't aged something that I have brewed this long before so thought I would ask input.

Thanks!
 
everyone has a different opinion but in mine let it roll in the primary for a month check to make sure its done. then bottle condition your six months but i guarantee you can't wait that long
 
I'm eager to find out. I'm doing this experiment at the moment.
I brewed a beer in september. Left it 8 weeks in primary then split it in 2 secondaries. I did bottle a few at that time.

I will bottle the first secondary next week and the following one in march.
I will do a side by side comparison in May.

I did also bottle some of that beer in recently emptied Irish connemara whiskey bottle.

I can't wait to test it all 4 more months...
 
My procedure for this is probably going to differ greatly from others, but here's what works for me. I started doing this after listening to a talk from vinney and jamil.

Also take into account all of my fermentations take place in stainless temp controlled conical fermenters.

Once primary is finished, meaning my final gravity has been achieved (usually 1.008) and DMS, diacytal, and all sulfides have either been consumed by the suspended yeast or I have re-pitched a low flocculating high attenuating yeast, I harvest my yeast for slants. I then pressurize the conical with 3 PSI C02 to ensure all O2 has been expelled from the fermenter. From there I can dry hop, add oak, add Brett, or simply let the beer mature without touching the finished product. I drop the temp from my ale fermentation temp of 59* F to 34* F. I do not put a time limit on this, but rather draw samples from the ball valve on the fermenter until the beer has decided it is at optimal packaging profile meaning taste, mouthfeel, and aroma.

For carboys I would use the racking cane and the carboy hood. Start the siphon by placing a sterile tube on the nipple of the carboy hood that does not have the racking cane running through it. I like to condition in kegs if l do not for some reason have a conical available. Connect your C02 to the "in" popit of your keg and purge the container with C02. Then connect the C02 to the tube on the carboy hood and use the pressure of the gas to start the siphon. This way no O2 is introduced during racking, and no O2 can penetrate the conditioning vessel. Of course you should be siphoning with a tube that either rests on the bottom of the keg or transfer through the dip tube in the keg to keep the procedure as closed as possible and to not splash the beer around at all.
 
I'm eager to find out. I'm doing this experiment at the moment.
I brewed a beer in september. Left it 8 weeks in primary then split it in 2 secondaries. I did bottle a few at that time.

I will bottle the first secondary next week and the following one in march.
I will do a side by side comparison in May.

I did also bottle some of that beer in recently emptied Irish connemara whiskey.

I can't wait to test it all 4 more months...

Would love to know the outcome of this experiment!
 
Would love to know the outcome of this experiment!

I bottled the first secondary bucket. It was a little over 7 weeks in and the difference between what i tested out of the primary and what came out of the secondary was amazing. A much better well rounded beer already. Can't wait to taste when I'll bottle the second secondary in 8 weeks.

The beer in the first secondary had aged 7 weeks in the primary and another 7 weeks in the secondary. It is a strong belgian ale. As far as I'm concerned made my case for keeping it longer in the secondary before bottling it.

Will post again when I bottle the next secondary.
 
I would be interested to see what tasted better after you bottle them all and taste all three side by side.
 
Bottled the last secondary of that batch. It has sat 8 weeks in the primary and 15 weeks in the secondary.

Beer tasted really good. Can't wait to see when it is ready from the bottle.
Comparaison will be in early may.
 
I know in winemaking it is always preferable to age in bulk. If you are still trying to get anything from the trub (chocolate, fruit, whatever) then aging in bulk is required.

Once all of the yeast and late addition results are as you wish, rack into an aging vessel that you can purge all the headspace from...carboys work, kegs are better.

When I age in kegs I actually begin carbonation at the same time using low pressure, it makes flavor sampling a little more accurate for me.
 
I prefer bulk. I split a batch of barleywine a few years ago. half went onto secondary for a few months, the other half aged in bottles. i thought the bulk aged portion was much better faster. after about a year i couldnt tell much difference tho. bulks nice cuz it keeps you from sampling too much too
 
So i did the test between the 3 version of the same batch of beer bottled at different times.

It was hardly noticeable but the beer that was aged 15 weeks before being bottled won. After that the one that was bottled out of the primary after 7-8 weeks was a close second and the one that was aged 22 weeks in the secondary and in the bottle for 2 months. But really it was so closed and I guess if I did this test in another 2 months I would be hard pressed to pick one as the best.

To be sure it was a blind test with 2 friends. We all picked the 15 weeks old beer as the best. Result were divided between the other 2.

I guess it is easier to get the beer to age in the secondary because when it is in the bottle it can just be to tempting to drink.
 
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