Too much trub in secondary while aging a barleywine?

I've been lurking around the forums for a while now, but haven't been able to find the answer, so I figured now would be a great time to say hi and actually make a post....

I brewed a barleywine about 6 weeks ago (OG around 1.1). After 3 weeks in primary, the gravity had stabilized at 1.020, so I figured it was time to get it in the carboy. I had planned on letting it age for 4-5 months before bottling, but after a week or so, I noticed a pretty significant layer of trub forming on the bottom of the carboy. Its been in there 3 weeks now and theres about 1.5 - 2 inches.

Did I transfer too soon? Should I transfer it over to another carboy if I'm going to let it age for another 3-4 months?

Thanks in advance for any knowledge you guys/gals can offer up.

You prob racked a little early but regardless you got it off the worst of it. I wouldn't worry about a little trub. I have left beers in the primary for months with no autolysis. sp.? RDWHAHB

oh and welcome to HBT

cheers!

I've never secondary fermented for that long but my last barley wine I fermented for 5 weeks. Then bottled. I will bottle age/condition for 6 months. This allows me to free up the fermenter and not use additional yeast for bottle carbonation. Why the long secondary time? I know I've seen people on here do it but never seen the benefit for an ale. It makes a little more sense to me for a lager. In addition, BYO had a Barley Wine section and none of the recipes required that length of time in the secondary fermentor.

Edit: Unless you're using oak chips or something.

What color is the layer? Is it a nice "clean" whitish color? Judging by your depth estimate I am guessing it's probably not. Sounds like you sucked quite a bit of junk out of the primary.

Berock said:

I've never secondary fermented for that long but my last barley wine I fermented for 5 weeks. Then bottled. I will bottle age/condition for 6 months. This allows me to free up the fermenter and not use additional yeast for bottle carbonation. Why the long secondary time? I know I've seen people on here do it but never seen the benefit for an ale. It makes a little more sense to me for a lager. In addition, BYO had a Barley Wine section and none of the recipes required that length of time in the secondary fermentor.

Edit: Unless you're using oak chips or something.

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While its not necessary, IMO it definitely helps bulk conditioning vs bottle conditioning. My last barleywine I bottled half after about 5 weeks and left the rest to bulk condition for 3 more months. The bulk stuff is much better.