Too late to bottle?

I have had a batch of Honey Weizen in carboys for almost 3 months (life hasn't been kind lately) and so I never got the time to bottle.

I could bottle it this weekend but I'm not sure if its even worth it at this point.

Can I just boil up the priming sugar solution like normal and bottle, or at this point should I just dump the beer and start a new batch?

Thanks in advance for any tips and advice.

everything like normal. Has it been sitting at room temp?

I've bottled a beer after 5.5 months in primary. It is a damn good beer. It should be fine.

It would be more worth bottling this than a new batch! Your long term conditioning should be finished by now, so even if it was fermented a bit warm, it probably cleaned its self up!

The yeast MAY take a bit longer than normal to carbonate but probably not.

both have been at room temperature. One carboy was in the basement so it fermented a few degrees cooler than the other carboy, but both between 65-75 degrees.

Revvy said:

I've bottled a beer after 5.5 months in primary. It is a damn good beer. It should be fine.

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good to know! Thanks

I'll be over in your neck of the woods tomorrow having a

I'm in the same boat, I have a batch of hefeweizen that was in the primary for about two months, it sat in my cellar where the temps range from 75 to 80 degrees.. unfortunately due to work obligations blowing up at the last minute I was unable to bottle this batch (Couldn't turn down work related trips to Belgium, Germany, and Ireland), so I just checked on it periodically and ensured there was enough water in the airlock.. but I am going to do bottle later today, hopefully it's still drinkable.. I'll let you guys know

Never dump batch! It will be fine. Maybe a bit past it's prime. But no reason to dump it.

Germelli1 said:

It would be more worth bottling this than a new batch! Your long term conditioning should be finished by now, so even if it was fermented a bit warm, it probably cleaned its self up!

The yeast MAY take a bit longer than normal to carbonate but probably not.

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Normally I'd agree with you and Revvy - I leave stuff in my primaries for ages sometimes, and only really rack beers I plan on aging/souring for at least 6 months.

However, the both OP and (incidentally) the post just one or two above this one are talking about hefes. This is really not a beer you want to "clean up" very much - you want a vibrant ester/phenol profile and enlivened yeast, but aging mutes this unique flavor profile, and causes the yeast to go dormant and drop out. I'm not sure if the honey weizen uses actual honey, but if it does, the same thing happens to much of the character you might be able to get out of it (if you manage to even get any in the first place).

So really, hefes are best to drink very young. I almost always let my beers ferment at least a month, but weizens are really at their best if you can get it out of the fermentor in 2 weeks or less. Heck, it's such that people who bottle (like me, for instance) are simply not even able to drink their hefes at their *absolute* prime because of the time required to bottle condition, though that's not to say they can't still be damn good.

However, with all that being said, there's absolutely NO REASON to write this batch off and dump. A good weizen should still be delicious — it just could have been even better.

So bottle up that brew and enjoy!

emjay said:

So bottle up that brew and enjoy!

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Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know how it comes out. Like I said in my post, my intent wasn't to let it age for two months, work for me is either feast or famine, and the last few weeks prevented me any time off to devote to home brewing. But definitely lesson learned, for hefe's in the future, definitely bottle as soon as fermentation is complete

Just finished bottling the beer and it tastes awesome.. SG was right at 1.012 and the target range from the kit was 1.012-1.017. Can't wait for it to carb up in a few weeks.. RDWHAHB goes a long way