What is better for ageing? secondary or bottles?

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better for aging

  • secondary

  • bottles


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bkov

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if your going to age a brew, what do you think is better? aging in bottles or in the secondary?

bottles

secondary
 
i believe were talking about beer here? Wine/cider in carboy, beer in bottles unless its a high alcohol beer in which case i would bulk age for a while and keep transfering off trub. Juct my $.02
 
I chose bottles, but for me it all depends on the brew. With my EW Apfelwein clone, I kept it in primary for a while (12-15 weeks if i remember correctly), and I have some still in bottles from last spring..

I don't like keeping stuff aging in secondary mainly because it is easier to keep bottles stored and I like keeping my fermenters free for new batches
 
I have done it both ways, and you definitely want to age in bulk in the secondary. You want that beer to be on some yeast (not trub), so the secondary is an ideal place. Typically, people rack 'cleanly' when they bottle, and there often isn't enough yeast left to clean up the beer as quickly as bulk conditioning.
 
+1 on what FlyGuy said! Aging in carboy is ideal because you get faster, more consistent, well rounded flavors when done in bulk.
 
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