Bottle condition vs secondary

I have an oatmeal stout in Primary which has been there for 18 days now. My gravity is now stable and I am wondering if there is a difference between bottling now and letting the beer sit in bottles to condition for probably 5 weeks or if I should rack to a secondary and let it condition there for a while longer before I bottle?

Any input?

You will find Many of us here leave our beers in primary for a month, it is actually very good for the beer to leave it around that long...it improves taste and clarity vastly...

There are several dozen threads about long primary or no secondary, at least three a day asking your question...if you wanna know what it does and why we choose to do it, just do a thread search on those key words...there's like at least one new thread on it every 2-3 days so there's plenty of info.

I would leave it a month then bottle....you will STILL need to bottle condition, there's still cleanup and mellowing that can only happen in the bottle in the 3-6 weeks at 70 degrees under carbonation....Most of my stouts and porters don't come into their own for about 6-8 weeks...and that's even with the long primary.

It's not really a versus issue...you can't escape bottle conditioning/carbonation.

THere's more info here, Revvy's blog- Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

I'm glad Revvy beat me to it. I need to set up a copy/paste database like yours.

Yeah, same thing he said. Just read his post twice for emphasis.

llazy_llama said:

I'm glad Revvy beat me to it. I need to set up a copy/paste database like yours.

Yeah, same thing he said. Just read his post twice for emphasis.

Click to expand...

But you have to post your drawing at least, with the time frame.

llazy_llama said:

....Just read his post twice for emphasis.

Click to expand...

hehehe. I am going to have to remember that. Good one LL.

Now, I will agree with the venerable Revvy just to make it unanimous.

Thanks. I've been browsing the threads about conditioning and ran across a wide range of approaches.

Again thanks for the link. Looks like I need to brew more, stouts take longer to mature than I first realized. I'm in no hurry, just want to do it right.

Revvy said:

You will find Many of us here leave our beers in primary for a month, it is actually very good for the beer to leave it around that long...it improves taste and clarity vastly...

Click to expand...

I am fairly new to this as well, just opened up a primary for brew day #6. However, a sweet stout I brewed a while back, that is now bottled, was left in the primary for 28 days, this weekend it will have been in the bottle for 1 month. I tried the first after 14 days in the bottle and it was damn good, best brew yet, and I attribute that to the extended primary, beforehand, I primaried for 7 days, then 10 days, then 14 days, honestly I think 1 month in the primary has made an enormous positive impact on this beer. I am just now getting really good carbonation and the flavor has mellowed nicely. I was so impressed I am going to try to duplicate this brew as exactly as possible for brew day #6.

Primary for at least a month, my LHBS sold me a 5 gallon BB secondary, and I just make Apfelwein and fruit beer in it now!

Happy Brewing!

I just made a Belgian Honey last night. My plan was to leave it in the Primary for a month, then several months in a secondary, then bottle condition for several more months. Should I just skip the secondary and bottle condition? or should I leave it in the Primary for longer. From what i understand these Belgian's require quiet a bit of aging. The OG was 1.080 and I used a starter that was on stir plates for a few days.

spin02 said:

I just made a Belgian Honey last night. My plan was to leave it in the Primary for a month, then several months in a secondary, then bottle condition for several more months. Should I just skip the secondary and bottle condition? or should I leave it in the Primary for longer. From what i understand these Belgian's require quiet a bit of aging. The OG was 1.080 and I used a starter that was on stir plates for a few days.

Click to expand...

For Belgians and other stong ales, secondary for a couple month is a good bet, just to get some bulk aging time. I think for my belgian I did a month primary, then 2 in secondary, an after 3 in the bottle mine are only now starting to carb, and lose some of that rocketfuel taste.

I have a Dubbel in the primary now for 12 days, I was going to leave it in there for 1 month and bottle condition for a few months, is a secondary really necessary? My OG was 1.078, higher than I estimated (1.070) I primaried at 65 degrees for 5 days (it volcanoed for the first 2) and then allowed to warm to room temperature since then (approx 74-75 degrees). I didn't plan on using a secondary for this.

Schnitzengiggle said:

I have a Dubbel in the primary now for 12 days, I was going to leave it in there for 1 month and bottle condition for a few months, is a secondary really necessary? My OG was 1.078, higher than I estimated (1.070) I primaried at 65 degrees for 5 days (it volcanoed for the first 2) and then allowed to warm to room temperature since then (approx 74-75 degrees). I didn't plan on using a secondary for this.

Click to expand...

To me 1.078 isn't THAT high, it's high, but it's not rocket fuel....I would month it then bottle, and expect a couple month conditioning in bottle anyway.

Awesome, but what would the benefit be, if any, to bulk age?

Schnitzengiggle said:

Awesome, but what would the benefit be, if any, to bulk age?

Click to expand...

Not having 50 bottles sitting there saying, "Drink me, drink me. I'm ready. You know you want to."

double_e5 said:

Not having 50 bottles sitting there saying, "Drink me, drink me. I'm ready. You know you want to."

Click to expand...

That really is the key!

Think about it, by leaving it in a fermentor for a bit you're not bottling until the beer has already aged a good while. By the time your 3 or 4 weeks of impatiently jigging about while it is in the bottle is up, it is actually nearly 2 months old and has matured a bit. Early bottling just means younger beer to my impatient mind.

There's also something to be said for everything mingling and "aging" together for a long time, everything is going to happen consistently across the board.