Aging/conditioning a big beer

I started a Belgian Golden Strong Ale a couple weeks ago. It is still in the primary and although activity has slowed down a lot, the airlock is going about 3 times a minute. I was going to let it sit another week or so and then rack to secondary.

How long should it stay in secondary before bottling? I have read that these types of beer doing peak for about 6 months but I don't know the "normal" breakdown of time in primary/secondary/bottles. Any general guidelines?

You shouldn't worry about how long you primary/secondary a beer. Wait until it's done. The beer will tell you when it's ready, not one of us. If you do a secondary, wait until activity stops in the primary, then rack. Activity may resume again. Wait until all activity stops, then wait another 2 days (could take gravity readings) before bottling. Yeast needs to clean up after themselves. It may not look like anything is going on, but there is!

No real guidelines. I'd give it a month in secondary and then bottle. Give it another two months in the bottle.

I have a vague notion that aging in secondary should be better than aging in bottles, as bulk-aging would avoid any between-bottle variability. But that's not based on anything specific - and I've certainly never heard of any problems from aging beer in bottles, so it may make no difference at all.

Poobah58 said:

You shouldn't worry about how long you primary/secondary a beer. Wait until it's done. The beer will tell you when it's ready, not one of us. If you do a secondary, wait until activity stops in the primary, then rack. Activity may resume again. Wait until all activity stops, then wait another 2 days (could take gravity readings) before bottling. Yeast needs to clean up after themselves. It may not look like anything is going on, but there is!

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I hear what you are saying, but really my question was not when will the beer be done, but how should it be conditioned? Is it better to condition in secondary or in bottles, or a combination of the two?

I am a patient guy and have no problem leaving the beer in the secondary for a few months if that would be better than bottle conditioning. But that may be useless as the same processes will happen in the bottle, and it will just mean I buy another carboy for no reason.