Seven months in Primary! What Now?!?!?!

So, seven months ago, I brewed an oatmeal stout, and as life would have it, I haven't yet opened it up. I have read a couple of other posts here concerning similar situations, and am going to go ahead and take it to the next step. Question is, what is the next step?

Do I rack it to a secondary and let it sit a week, do I pitch more yeast into it, and if so, how much, or do I just bottle it and see what happens?

Any info would help greatly, as this is my fifth batch of beer so far.

Looking forward to your replies, and thanks in advance for your help.

jedmon
chandler, az

I let a batch of IPA sit around for about that long once.

I finally racked it, pitched some yeast, added some hop pellets, let is sit for two weeks then bottled.

It was fine... different, but fine.

cool. any particular type of yeast? And thanks for the encouragement.

Same yeast you used before.

Others may have a different opinion about re-pitching.

What does it smell like? Reason I ask is that if it smells bad, you may have autolysis. I doubt that's the case for you, though, because I have left stuff in the primary for six months and it came out okay. Not as good as it could be, but duty called and I had to answer, so the beer was almost forgotten for some time. When I got to it, it was fine but I do wish I had bottled before I had to leave.

Sanitize a turkey baster or similar and pull out a sample and give it a taste. That will tell you all you want to know about whether or not to proceed.

Congratulations. You won the Patience award.

SEVEN Months! Thats got to be a record of some kind for a 5th batch right?

A long sit for an IPA would kill the aroma, but your stout should be great by now. If it smells okay, 99% chance it will taste okay. Autolysis is one of those things that is obvious, like a cesspool gone bad.

David, that's a good starting point. SWMBO #1 made some wine that went autolytic years ago and I went from smiling to heaving in about two seconds when I got a whiff.

Yeah, I had a batch of an amber ale that I forgot about for six months, and it was VINEGAR! Yuck!

thanks to all of you for your posts. I will be opening it up tonight, to take a whiff and a taste. I guess I will keep you updated. Thanks again.

How does it taste??

jedmon said:

So, seven months ago, I brewed an oatmeal stout, and as life would have it, I haven't yet opened it up.

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you are MASTER of YOUR DOMAIN!

Just so everyone knows, it tastes horrid! Now I know. And knowing is half the battle. Go Joe!

give it another 7 months in a bottle and see?

LOL! Nice one, mordantly!

Cut your losses, jedmon. Move on. Pour one out for your dead homies (the stout), and brew again!

well, i would save a 6er or 12er to see. for schitts and giggles, ya know?

I sure wish I had just a little of your patience. I'm on my 5th brew and I'm ready to go down to MLHBS and get another primary because I just cant wait! I have about 10 recipes I'm ready to brew right now!

"but i only need one more fermenter!" i tell myself and still could use more, more, more.

question: Did this happen because it was left in primary for seven months? Would it have been alright if kept in secondary? I am looking to do some brews and let them sit in secondary for a couple months. Don't mean to hijack this thread.

I left a similar beer in primary for around 4 months and apparently was lax on my sanitation because when I got ready to bottle it I noticed a furry circle of mold floating on top. It's my only beer to ever get infected, and I'm still curious how it happened. It didn't smell bad, but the taste was way too thin for a stout and it was starting to turn sour.

Haha, just realized that I didn't answer your question very well, smmcdermott.

Edit: If his spoilage was caused by autolysis, then racking to secondary would greatly reduce the chances of that. However, if it was due to some infection then racking would increase the risk (though only slightly if you're good with your sanitation). If you must leave it, I'd suggest secondary. Best is just to follow a good practice and don't leave it for seven months.

smmcdermott said:

question: Did this happen because it was left in primary for seven months? Would it have been alright if kept in secondary? I am looking to do some brews and let them sit in secondary for a couple months. Don't mean to hijack this thread.

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Well, the primary problem was likely autolysis (dead yeast cells rupturing and releasing nasty taste/aroma/toxins), which is greatly decreased by transferring to secondary, since you leave most of the dead yeast behind in the transfer. Of course, our mead- and wine-making friends leave their fermented products in secondary for a good, long time, so yes, you can do it as well.

But one other thing to consider is that a good long bottle conditioning (or keg conditioning) is like a secondary fermentation, as well. The yeast consume the priming sugar and drop to the bottom of the bottle, but the beer inside continues to change and evolve while it's sitting there. So you might just consider bottling (kegging) and leaving it to develop for several months before you drink it.

The real advantage to this is that if you want to drink a bottle every few weeks to see how it's coming along, if you decide one week that the beer is at its peak, all you need to do is chill the rest and party! It's a bit tougher to do with a keg, because you don't want to be chilling the whole keg down and then letting it raise back to storage temperature after you've tried it, but you can always test-drink your beer warm... or just bottle a few and use those as your test beers.

i would bottle a 6er off the room temp keg to see how it was. of course once i put the rascal in the fridge it was better than the kinda flat bottles.

mrcoldone said:

I sure wish I had just a little of your patience. I'm on my 5th brew and I'm ready to go down to MLHBS and get another primary because I just cant wait! I have about 10 recipes I'm ready to brew right now!

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Me too!!!!!!