How long is too long in primary?

It's an american cream ale that has been in there for 2 and a half weeks. If I am not going to secondary should I get it out and bottle or wait a little longer.

The best way to determine when to rack is by checking the gravity - if it hasn't changed in a few days, you're good to go. That being said, it's hard to spend too long in primary - some people (including me) don't even use secondary for most of their beers.

addis29 said:

It's an american cream ale that has been in there for 2 and a half weeks. If I am not going to secondary should I get it out and bottle or wait a little longer.

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I leave mine for between 3 weeks and a month..it greatly improves their quality and clarity...I don't secondary.

Revvy said:

I leave mine for between 3 weeks and a month..it greatly improves their quality and clarity...I don't secondary.

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Ditto - patience!!

Since you aren't planning to rack it for clearing, you may as well leave it another 10 days. I generally wait a month after the fermentation is done, then rack straight to a keg.

I left my cream ale in the primary for about 5 weeks and it came out great! No off flavors that I could tell.

SD

Taking gravity readings over the course of 2-3 days is the only way to be certain fermentation is complete and if you want to bottle after just 2 and a half weeks I would DEFINITELY take those readings. The longer you leave it in the primary the more certain you can be that fermentation is complete and the less risk you have of bottle bombs. Granted, there's still the chance your fermentation could have stalled and you won't know that either unless you take the readings.

For myself, I no longer take gravity readings until it's time to bottle/keg as I always leave my beers sit in the primay for at least 2 weeks and then secondary (brite tank) for 3 weeks to several months depending on the style.

It's pretty much been said already but I will add my 2 cents. I leave mine in primary for 3 weeks on average. I don't even mess with it for those three weeks. I have read posts where guys have made a brew and for some reason or another left it in primary for 2 months or so. No problems there they reported. I personally wouldn't leave it that long cause I am afraid of the off flavors that I have heard others say are possible. Your fine if it's only been in there for 2 1/2 weeks though. I prefer to secondary but if that's not an option I would leave it in there for another week just to give it some more time to clean up after itself and for more flocculation time.

Glass or plastic primary. YOu can leave it in a glass carboy for quite a while. I wouldn't leave in plastic longer than 2 weeks.

thanks for all the advice you all gave me more than enough info.

thanks for all the advice.

I routinely use secondary fermentation (primary in plastic bucket, secondary in glass or Better Bottle carboy), and I'd like to see some figures on how permeable the various plastics actually are to O2. I assume someone's done studies somewhere on the ubiquitous bucket, or the PETE bottles....anyone see any figures for this?

hoss75 said:

Glass or plastic primary. YOu can leave it in a glass carboy for quite a while. I wouldn't leave in plastic longer than 2 weeks.

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FWIW I left my last three batches in a plastic bucket for 8 weeks with no problems.

hoss75 said:

Glass or plastic primary. YOu can leave it in a glass carboy for quite a while. I wouldn't leave in plastic longer than 2 weeks.

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Just as the poster above said, I have left my beers in plastic for a month, and notice no off flavors.
Do you have any factual evidence that plastic can damage a beer?