How long can you leave it in secondary?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
impatient

impatient

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
827
Reaction score
4
Location
Des Moines, IA
I plan to have 5 cases bottled at all times and 5 gallons in secondary waiting for bottles to open up. Is this a good idea?

It will probably take around 6 weeks for the bottles to be opened up for bottling.

Is 6 weeks in secondary to long?

I won't be moving to secondary until around 3 weeks to let as much as possible settle out.
 
You can leave it in the carboy for as long as you want. It'll be fine. When I make lagers, they are in secondary for 12 weeks or more sometimes. Just check the airlocks once in a while, so they don't evaporate, or in a temperature change get sucked into the beer. Keep them filled and you'll be fine for months.
 
My longest time in secondary is 18 months. Beer turned out fantastic. Six weeks is nothing in the grand scheme of secondary-ing.
 
You are fine. But a better solution is to get more bottles. Then you can bottle when the beer is ready and have more available to drink. Ask some friends to save their bottles or buy a few 6ers for your self. Many brewers on here who bottle have dozens of cases of bottles.

Craig
 
So, it seems that there is no definitive answer on lagering but is there a way to figure out how long one's own particular batch should lager? Any general guidelines, gravities, tastes?
 

Similar threads

pacostagli
Simple Question - When to move into Secondary?
Replies
27
Views
3K
pacostagli
pacostagli
jonahk
troubleshooting priming sugar error
Replies
4
Views
997
InspectorJon
InspectorJon
Crack
First lager, tastes bitter
Replies
13
Views
2K
Crack
Crack
K
Question About Keg Secondary
Replies
9
Views
762
Broken Crow
Broken Crow
M
Blowoff tube on mead?
Replies
4
Views
407
macscoot
M
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top