Looooong time in secondary

Hello homebewers!

For one reason or another, mainly from being out of town and because of my 10 months old boy who keeps on going and going, I have not been able to bottle a Sameul Adams Boston Ale Clone (from AHS) that i brewed all the way back in december!

I left it in primary for 4 long weeks and transfered to secondary in the middle on january and its been sitting there since then. I know now that in around 3 weeks I will have time to bottle and brew again (my trips are finally over!!!).

My questions are, is this beer still ok after such a long time in secondary? If you think is ok, do you recommend adding some yeast to the bottling bucket prior to bottling? If so, how much (i have a packet of dry yeast)? Any other concerns i should worry aboout?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Mawa

I think it will be fine. It should have cleared a lot after all this time!

When I have an ale that has been in the secondary for a long time, I gently scrape the bottom of the secondary with my racking cane/Auto-siphon to kick up a little yeast. That has always worked.

Different story if this were a lager. You might want to add yeast to those. But an ale should be fine.

Yeah, it should keep just as well, or even better, in the secondary as in bottles. It might be worth stirring a couple of spoonfuls of yeast from the bottom of the secondary into the bottling bucket - or just being a bit 'careless' when siphoning to stir up a little yeast. Other than that it should be pretty good.

Agreed. The colder that beer has been sitting in the fermenter, the more you want to kick up a slight amount of yeast. Cold conditions would cause the yeast drop out of suspension more completely.


Most likely, it's been sitting around 65-70 degrees?

If so, like Barry said, a spoon ful or two of yeast sediment into the bottling bucket will do the trick. Just make sure to pour out of the bottle carefully when serving.