In September I brewed my "Fortieth Birthday Belgian Tripel" with the plan of leaving it in secondary until next August, then bottling it in time to drink it for my fortieth birthday next September.
It's been racked off to my secondary for a week or so now, and it looks lovely. My question is this: do I need to leave an airlock on the carboy for the entire 11 months? I'm thinking that after a month or so in the secondary it would make more sense to remove the airlock and just put a bung in the carboy, sealing it up. My fear is that I will at some point neglect my carboy and the liquid in the airlock will dry up, allowing bugs in my beer.
Any thoughts?
It's been racked off to my secondary for a week or so now, and it looks lovely. My question is this: do I need to leave an airlock on the carboy for the entire 11 months? I'm thinking that after a month or so in the secondary it would make more sense to remove the airlock and just put a bung in the carboy, sealing it up. My fear is that I will at some point neglect my carboy and the liquid in the airlock will dry up, allowing bugs in my beer.
Any thoughts?