Big Beer -- Secondary Necessary?

Okay, I am getting ready to brew my third batch this weekend. So far my first two have come out great. I left both of them in primary for 21 days and then straight to bottles.

The beer I will be brewing this weekend will have an estimated OG of 1.080. I have not been able to get a clear consensus on here as to whether a secondary is necessary. I would really like to avoid a secondary right now if it is possible. What will happen if I just leave this one in primary for 4 weeks?

I would think the majority of people on here would just leave it in the primary. I do not use a secondary for my beers unless I am adding fruit or oak. Just leave it on the yeast cake to let them do their work.

I have yet to brew a big beer but the impression I get is that the most important part is the time spent bottle conditioning.

Okay, so I will leave it in primary for four weeks and then bottle, but I am slightly worried about the bottle conditioning. This is an IPA with a lot of hops. Will longer conditioning in bottles reduce the hop flavor/aroma? How long after bottling do you usually see a degradation in hop flavor/aroma?

I personally secondary most of my beers. A beer that big will probably need at least 2 months (again IMO) before if goes into the bottles. I would do 2-3 weeks in primary and then the rest in secondary. All my opinion.

Not necessary, especially with an IPA. If it were a barleywine or RIS, something like that, I'd recommend putting it in a secondary for a few months for "bulk aging" as that works faster than bottle conditioning.

The second you remove the hops from your IPA you will start to lose flavor/aroma but not bitterness. It's just the nature of the beast, I'd give it around 4 weeks at 70F in the bottle then give it a try.

fbones24 said:

What will happen if I just leave this one in primary for 4 weeks?

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You'll make beer.

The primary is for fermenting and you shouldn't move out of your primary until it's done fermenting. I take gravity readings once a week and when I get the same reading two weeks in a row, it's done. Sometimes that takes two weeks, sometimes it takes six. Just be aware that a big beer can take longer to finish. It might be done in four weeks but it might not. Let your hydrometer tell you when it is really ready.

After that, you can go straight to bottle or keg. Personally, I kick every batch into a secondary for a few weeks to let it clear up a bit. That's a totally optional step and if you don't want to do it, don't.

fbones24 said:

Okay, so I will leave it in primary for four weeks and then bottle, but I am slightly worried about the bottle conditioning. This is an IPA with a lot of hops. Will longer conditioning in bottles reduce the hop flavor/aroma? How long after bottling do you usually see a degradation in hop flavor/aroma?

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I would bottle condition for a minimum of three weeks, then have at it. IPAs need to be drank young if you dry hopped. You dont want to loose your hop slap.

EDIT: I have noticed a noticeable degradation in hop aroma in my IPAs after about 4 months. However, I still love the beer. Its not like it was undrinkable, it just didnt have the same kick from the dry hopping.

woops, didn't see it was an IPA. Yeah, these should be drank younger.

gtpro said:

I have yet to brew a big beer but the impression I get is that the most important part is the time spent bottle conditioning.

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From my experience with big beers it seems like bulk conditioning matures the beer faster than conditioning in the bottle.

Okay, thanks for all the suggestions. I will leave it in primary for AT LEAST four weeks making sure to take hydrometer readings to be sure it is done. I will then bottle and leave alone for three weeks. Then I will crack one open!

Remember not to be too quick with taking the readings. If you still see activity then just leave it alone. That OG isn't too high so you shouldn't have anything out of the ordinary happen.

I will give you a major piece of advice that I haven't seen mentioned yet. Use a blowoff tube. Every IPA that I've brewed has needed one, it has something to do with the hop oils.

I will keep a blow off tube handy, but since my first brew, I have used fermcap and had no issues with boilovers or blow offs.