How long can you perform secondary fermentation?

How long can you perform secondary fermentation?
I haven't been able to get bottles for one reason or another, and i've kept the beer in a carboy for probably a month now.
When I finally get enough bottles, will I able to simply add priming sugar and the yeast will carbonate it? Or will the yeast be dead by then?

Also, I was planning to boil priming sugar with a cup of water and then pouring it into the bottling bucket, siphoning from the carboy to the bottling bucket, and then bottling the beers, but I was told by someone else that I should instead put a teaspoon of priming sugar into every bottle instead, and then add the beer. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

I left a batch of double IPA in the secondary for more than 5 weeks once and it carbed up fine.

Dont listen to that someone else...you had the right plan

Thanks.
How did you add sugar? teaspoon by teaspoon or mixed into a bottling bucket?

You are getting "secondary fermentation" and a secondary confused for one thing.

Secondary fermentation is a misnomer, since no fermentaion SHOULD happen in the secondary. The secondary is to clear your beer, though many of us no longer use a secondary, but instead opt for the long primary, leaving our beers in primary to clear up, and feel that our beer is much better for it.

And you can leave your beer in a "secondary" as long as you want. Years if you are brewing a big beer.

But secondary fermentation should be long over before you even move it to one.

Read this to understand the difference better.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/multiple-questions-about-secondary-fermentation-140978/#post1601829

Many of us no longer secondary at all for normal beers, just for beers that need months of bulk aging time, or oak, and this is where some of the latest info is on the subject

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

From what I've read, teaspoon by teaspoon into bottles results in very inconsistent carbonation from one bottle to the next. Some even turning into little glass grenades. Better to dump the sugar water into the bottling bucket.

Thats right...into the bottling bucket....rack on top, the swirling action will mix the priming sugar into your beer for proper ditribution.

Beerdude said:

Also, I was planning to boil priming sugar with a cup of water and then pouring it into the bottling bucket, siphoning from the carboy to the bottling bucket, and then bottling the beers, but I was told by someone else that I should instead put a teaspoon of priming sugar into every bottle instead, and then add the beer. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

Click to expand...

If it's under 6 months you don't need to add more yeast. And it is more precise to bulk carb your beer with priming solution (your original method) than to try to accurate measure out a tiny amount of sugar.

There's plenty of tips on bottling here; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

I heat a cup of water and put in my priming sugar, stir it until dissolved, simmering boil for 10 minutes. Then let it cool or chill it to room temp.

I start the siphon into the bottling bucket so it swirls nicely. When there's a couple of inches of beer in there, I carefully pour the priming sugar against the side of the bucket so it doesnt splash. That is all you need to do for nice even carbonation.

Your friend might THINK that perfectly measured sugar in each bottle is "obviously" going to give you even carbonation. But he or she is forgetting that not every bottle will get the exactly perfectly measured amount of yeast to go along with it. So it works out to be less accurate their way. But in a pinch, if you had no choice.. it would work ok.

Beerdude said:

How long can you perform secondary fermentation?
I haven't been able to get bottles for one reason or another, and i've kept the beer in a carboy for probably a month now.
When I finally get enough bottles, will I able to simply add priming sugar and the yeast will carbonate it? Or will the yeast be dead by then?

Also, I was planning to boil priming sugar with a cup of water and then pouring it into the bottling bucket, siphoning from the carboy to the bottling bucket, and then bottling the beers, but I was told by someone else that I should instead put a teaspoon of priming sugar into every bottle instead, and then add the beer. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

Click to expand...

Beer can stay in the primary a long long time if you store it correctly. Cool area and free from sunshine or artificial light. Several months. Some belgian lambics go years.

Prime your beer using the first method you mentioned. (Called Bulk-priming) Use about 5 oz (by weight) per 5 gallons. Don't do the individual bottle method unless you have carbonation tabs or drops. Although it works, you can get sporadic results using a teaspoon. Its too hard to be consistent. I'm not even sure if a teaspoon is the correct amount.

A long time ago I used the Mr Beer priming tool to measure sugar. Its rather consistent by design. Its a little risky with regards to contamination, but I never had an issue with measuring or with contamination. I didn't do it very long though. I bulk prime if I don't force carb with co2.

Thank you for all of you input guys! Greatly appreciated!
Cheers!