Sitting long times in primaries

Ok- I am going to brew the 888RIS this weekend. I will only have a few days before I leave.

Is it ok to leave in the primary for 4 months or will the yeast and trub create issues?

Hrm... I've heard of others (and even done myself) 6 weeks in primary without any issues (on a much smaller beer too), but 16 weeks is quite a long time to leave it on the trub IMO.

Would racking it to a secondary only 4-5 days be ok? Would I still be able to hit my FG?

Only your hydrometer can tell you for sure or not. Although racking that earlier there should still be a good amount of yeast in suspension to carry on the fermentation but also get you off a majority of the trub that may have carried over from the pot.

MikeFlynn74 said:

Ok- I am going to brew the 888RIS this weekend. I will only have a few days before I leave.

Is it ok to leave in the primary for 4 months or will the yeast and trub create issues?

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If the yeast is healthy when you pitch and the beer is kept cool (say 63º or less), then I bet you would be OK. Even if you did get a little autolysis, I doubt you could tell in an RIS.

4 weeks is the longest I've ever left a beer in primary, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

A second thought: Is there somebody you trust to rack the beer into a secondary in a month or so?

I think Im gonna instruct the wife on the ways of racking..... lol

MikeFlynn74 said:

Would racking it to a secondary only 4-5 days be ok? Would I still be able to hit my FG?

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Seems like it might be an option... I would definitely make a nice healthy starter so you can get that thing fermenting within a few (read: less than 3-4) hours. I'm willing to bet the large majority of fermentation would be over by the 5th day if you did this and, as someone else noted, there should be plenty of yeast in suspension at that point to finish it off...

Pitching a healthy starter and getting it mostly fermented out by racking would be crucial though, I would think.

I've never attempted anything like this (never brewed a big RIS, never racked after only 4 days, etc), so take my advice with a grain of salt also...

So sitting in a secondary for 3 months would be ok then?

Sitting in the secondary for 3 months should be a much better option than sitting in the primary for that length... I would expect trub to be 50%-80% less in that environment, thus less risk of autolosys.

Ideally you would wait 2 weeks then transfer to secondary and age for that long, but since their isn't an ideal alternative for you, this is at least less risky. (Unless you really were going to have your SWMBO rack it)

I'd think of it as, "bulk aging" on a little bit of trub. Some risk exists for autolosys and offflavors anytime you are sitting on trub for that long (which is why normally if you planned to bulk age you would secondary only after maybe 2 weeks or more), but I'd much rather it sit on 1/2" of trub/yeast cake than 1 1/2"-2" of trub/yeast cake as it would in that primary.

I'd say it is okay.

MikeFlynn74 said:

I think Im gonna instruct the wife on the ways of racking..... lol

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If you can do it, I think this is the best option. If not your wife, then a buddy? Do a practice run with sanitizer first.

I don't like the idea of taking a big RIS out of primary after only a few days, but I also don't like the idea of leaving it in there for 4 months.

If I had to choose, I'd leave it in primary and hope for the best. But I have good temp control, too...

MikeFlynn74 said:

I think Im gonna instruct the wife on the ways of racking..... lol

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Hey, my wife tends my beer quite well when I am away. I walked her through the whole process once, then had her on the phone the first time she racked it when I wasn't there; so far no problems.

Right- We will do a dry run the next few days and I will let the RIS sit 2 weeks

then rack to secondary for the next 3.5 months- Then keg and drink like Its 1999

Ah HA! Im not leaving till after the 1st. I can get it racked prior to leaving !

With a really small (one quart starter) I left my 888RIS on primary for three weeks, the temp was still over 80dF for ~12 hours.

If you have a big starter and good temp control the 888RIS recipe could probably be racked to secondary in less than a week.

Cool- I will have about 15 days to rack it

plan on using a decent starter