Too Long to Bottle

Okay, I have a Cali. Common that has been in the secondary fermenter (corney keg) for seven months. That's right seven (7) months. It's a long story. Basically I got deployed to Afghanistan again and the neglected brew remained alone in the basement until my return. It hasn't been exposed to any high temps but the basement does get down to around fifty degrees this time of year. My question is would you guys bottle it? What are some issues it could have. I assume there will be some off flavors. But if it's salvagable then great. Thanks in advance.

smell it, and taste it. if its funky, then bail.

It smells pretty good. I'll give it the taste test.

dump it....

I've made many of batches that went that long in the secondary and they were all good. I can't even imaging why you even asking? Bottle it!

todd_k said:

dump it....

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Facepalm...

If it tastes good, go for it. I don't know if you'll have carbonation issues after going that long in secondary though. You could line up your bottles and drop in just a couple grains of dry yeast into each one and then bottle, just to be safe.

WIP said:

Facepalm...

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I think he's just planning on sitting under the OP's sink with a pipe wrench and a bucket.

The only batch I added extra yeast to was one that sat 18 months. It won't hurt to add more if you are worried about carbonation. I hydrated about a third of a packet of yeast and added it to bottling bucket and gave it a gentle stir.

todd_k said:

dump it....

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What's up, Negative Nancy.

Hopefully sitting on the yeast for that long will have allowed for most undesirable byproducts to have been cleaned up; important for a California Common. The long time could have also produced off-flavors resulting from autolysis (cell death / explosion) but that is highly debated; I personally don't worry about it and haven't detected any off-flavors from a long time on the yeast cake.

Bottom-line, if it tastes and smells good in your opinion, then bottle that mother up. If you're not crazy about it, bottle it up and send it my way ^_^

The only thing I can see going slightly wrong is that carbonation in the bottles will be a bit sluggish; probably won't fully carb until week 4 or 5. But otherwise you should be golden

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll definetly be bottling. Before I even looked in the fermenter I was determined to bottle as long as there were no visible signs of contamination. But, then I started second guessing myself. I'm just glad that there is a community like this available as a resource for newer brewers like myself.
By the way, it tastes damn good!

Metzger22 said:

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll definetly be bottling. Before I even looked in the fermenter I was determined to bottle as long as there were no visible signs of contamination. But, then I started second guessing myself. I'm just glad that there is a community like this available as a resource for newer brewers like myself.
By the way, it tastes damn good!

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I figured it would. Why not force carbonate in a keg?

Yeah, bottle it. I'd suggest adding a little bit of yeast at bottling to ensure carbonation. You don't need very much yeast, I'd only use like 1/6th a packet or something along those lines (if you got one lying around). Then I'd wait at least 3-4 weeks before opening one.

uechikid said:

I figured it would. Why not force carbonate in a keg?

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+1. If you have the keg, use it! If you really wanna bottle it, bottle it from the keg after it's carbonated. There's less risk of contamination and its tons easier.

I would force cargonate but unfortunatley I don't have a keg set up yet. Just the kegs. Bummer.

isn't it almost the holiday season? treat yourself to the set up.