Beer fermenting since May?

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smithnick0

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I have a beer that has been in my closet in its primary since the end of May. Its been in a closet at room temperature over the last 6 months. I opened it tonight and had a thin layer of gunk on the top and smelled really banana'e which i figured being a wheat beer and sitting room temperature. My question is, is the beer still good? Do i need to provide pics?
Thanks for your help!
 
Only one way to find out. Rack from under the layer and give a taste and see if you like it.
If it has gone bad you will figure it out quickly.
I know most wheat beers are usually better younger than older but I think you should be fine as long as you didn't get an infection that would produce unwanted off flavors.
But again the only way we can help you would e to try it ourselves and tell you. Nothing will grow in your beer that will kill you it May not taste the greatest but its still beer.
 
You need to TASTE it, that's the only way to tell. We can't tell you. NOTHING PATHOGENIC CAN EXIST IN BEER. Nothing can harm you, so there should be NO reason to fear trying something to see if it's still good. More than likely it is perfectly fine. It may even be one of the best beers you've made.

Your beer hasn't been FERMENTING for 6 months, it's been conditioning. A beer only ferments for for as long as the yeast takes to eat the fermentable sugars......
 
Only way to really know would be to give it a taste. That said I might have low hopes given that hef yeast tends to live hard and die young and hef flavors tend to fade quicker than most
 
As suggested above, rack from below the gunk and try it. But I recently kegged a Wee Heavy that had been bulk conditioning in the carboy for about 6 months and it didn't have anything on top of the beer.
 
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