What is the longest that you've left a batch in the secondary?

I did an arrogant bastard clone and it's been in the secondary for about 2 months....i've been really busy. what does everyone think?

You will be fine.Those of us doing the 999 swap are brewing a Barleywine that will be in secondary for at least 6 months, if not longer.
Arrogant Bastard is a nice strong brew and will do nicely with a little longer aging.
RDWHAHB!

I have kept beer in a secondary for 2-3 months. If you are going to bottle, you might as well let it sit in the bottle to reduce chance of contamination of the whole batch. If kegging, it can be aged in a keg also. I sometimes move from primary to keg and let it carbonate over 3-4 week period to let it settle more or secondary and then put into keg for 3 weeks.

awesome, wow you guys are quick. thanks

over 100 days...

I've kept beer in secondary for up to 6 months with no issues.

Hoosierbrewer said:

I have kept beer in a secondary for 2-3 months. If you are going to bottle, you might as well let it sit in the bottle to reduce chance of contamination of the whole batch. If kegging, it can be aged in a keg also. I sometimes move from primary to keg and let it carbonate over 3-4 week period to let it settle more or secondary and then put into keg for 3 weeks.

Click to expand...

You have a point, Hoosier, however you are not bringing into play the many benefits of allowing your brew to bulk age. Bulk aging will give you a far more consistent beer from glass to glass and it will give the brew some more time to party with all it's brothers and sisters before being split up.

I tend to try to keep the beer all together until the very last moment (which is much easier when you keg)

6 months on a few of my belgian beers.

At what point does the secondary become just another piece of furniture in the house? he he

To date the longest I've done it about 5 months, but I have some coming up that will be sitting for almost a year.

Six months and counting...

Two weeks.

let's see, the 888 RIS some of us made at the beginning of the year. So about 7 months.

Does a barley wine that went from fermenter to keg count? If so, five years and ticking.

15 weeks Indian brown ale. Turned out awesome.

Ive had a few meads for 6 months or so, but the only beer that sat for about 1.5 months was a Scottish ale about 8% with peat smoked malt so it needed a little time to mellow.

I have a Belgian(8.24%) and a cider(10%) in 2nd for just over 5 months now.... but at what point do you need to throw in more yeast for bottling and if you do I take a starter Isn't needed? I was looking at letting everything sit till mid august then do a 3rd and put in yeast and let sit for a few weeks. Then bottle and let sit in bottles for 6 months to age.

I have a Midwest Noble Trappist Ale that I left in secondary for two months, now been in the bottle since April 1st. Pretty nice....a Corsendonk-like brew. Currently, I've a Midwest Imperial Stout that's been in secondary since June 19th...not planning on bottling until maybe Thanksgiving, hoping it'll be nice by Christmas.

18 months on a winter ale. We served it at a party a few months ago and had rave reviews for it.

DeadDoc said:

...At what point do you need to throw in more yeast for bottling...?

Click to expand...

Bump and I second that question.

6 or 7 months on a barley wine. It's been in bottles for 2 years now and it keeps getting better and better

I am pushing 6 months now on a Braggot

I had a month each for my Real Mango Wheat and the Bourbon Oak Chip Brew.

Both were hard to let sit there for so long, both tasted FANTASTIC, both didnt last too long

Bopper359 said:

6 or 7 months on a barley wine. It's been in bottles for 2 years now and it keeps getting better and better

Click to expand...

So you carbed in bottles without any extra yeast after 6 months correct?

hammacks said:

So you carbed in bottles without any extra yeast after 6 months correct?

Click to expand...

Yes, but at 6 months its not going to be as carbonated as it would be if you bottled at 1 or 2 months. If I was brewing a different style I'd just be sure to suck up a bit of the trub into the bottling bucket...that should provide enough viable yeast for carbination. At that length of time you could just add a tad more yeast if you wanted to but its probably not necessary.

With that said, you're only talking about a few months in the secondary. You have nothing to worry about.

9 months....had to put some new dry yeast in, but it's been fine

Bopper359 said:

Yes, but at 6 months its not going to be as carbonated as it would be if you bottled at 1 or 2 months. If I was brewing a different style I'd just be sure to suck up a bit of the trub into the bottling bucket...that should provide enough viable yeast for carbination. At that length of time you could just add a tad more yeast if you wanted to but its probably not necessary.

With that said, you're only talking about a few months in the secondary. You have nothing to worry about.

Click to expand...

SO if u want a decently high but not bottle blower you should throw in more yeast into a fermenter after about 5-6 months then correct(cider is using I think 7oz of sugar)? I am planning on letting them sit for another 6 months in bottles. I want my cider to be nice and buubbbblyyy. And then next one... if I dont want yeast on the bottom of the bottles, whats the time frame of letting the yeast settle in? Sorry for the slight newbish question just never did any research on doing this... all I have seen on adding yeast in was 3 days before bottling and that produced yeast in bottles (fine for my Belgian but id rather not).

I left an IPA in secondary for 14 months and it turned out great! I didn't add yeast at bottling time either.

Well I just read in a book, Radical Brewing, that it is not necessary to repitch for fermenting beer if it is under a year.

ohiobrewtus said:

To date the longest I've done it about 5 months, but I have some coming up that will be sitting for almost a year.

Click to expand...

I stand corrected. With the amount of brewing that I've been doing of late I had to rack the beers that I have aging for extended periods of time to tertiary (keg) to free up some secondaries.

We found a Steam Beer in a keg (we secondary in kegs) dated March 03. Its pretty darn good considering the lousy temperature control in the garage, and the fact that that was always one of our "early drinkables". I'm glad I hopped it a little more than the original recipe