How long can beer sit in the fermenter?

Back before Christmas I was the mad brewer. I wanted to make sure I had enough beer for the holidays. I did indeed make enough, actually more than enough. Anyway, I've been really busy since then and havent had the time to do any brewing since then. There was one batch that I brewed but never got around to bottling it. Its been sitting in the fermenter since the middle of December. I just looked at it and there is a thin tan coating floating on top. Its been covered in darkness since it was put in the fermenter. What are the chances that it is still good? Is it worth bottling or should I dump it? What should I look for? Thanks in advance.

Did it stay in primary the whole time, or did you put it in secondary? Also, do you know what the OG was for the recipe?

It is a wildflower wheat and the OG was 1.052. If I remember correctly, it has been in the secondary all this time, I'm not completely sure though.

Taste it. It should be fine, though.

I would smell it than carefully take a sample for tasting (assuming it smell "good"). That should give you a good idea of what's going on in that carboy.

One thing I would be concern with about such a long term secondary is if the yeast is still alive or enough healthy to be used to carbonate your bottles with.

If it's good to the taste I would consider kegging (force carbonate) it instead. This sound like an interesting experience.

I say screw it, bottle it or keg it anyway. If it sucks, you'll know... if not you got beer to drink.

And if it does, you have something to offer people who come over to mooch your homebrew. :cross:

Well I was going to open a bottle today just to see if any carbonation was taking place. When I took a bottle out of the case, I saw a bunch of bubbles on the inside of the bottle. So I didnt open any bottles and I am assuming that the yeast did survive after all this time and that carbonation is taking effect? What do you think?

Can't hurt to just let it go. Wait a few weeks and crack one open. This is why I keep a few 1 liter PET plastic bottles around so I can do the "squeeze test"... basically I'll bottle my beer in the swingtops and fill one 1 liter plastic bottle so I can kind of monitor the speed and level of carbonation.

The only beer I've ever had a problem with from age (and it was drinkable, just not up to the usual standard) was in secondary, or possibly tertiary, for several years. A few months - no problem - should be good, really.

Well, I just popped a bottle of my last batch which was in primary for ~8 weeks and it was good... Really good... Only my second batch but it was exponentially better than my first.