Irrational fear of the bogeyman?

I had hoped to build my kegerator this week and keg the two beers I have in primary before going on vacation. However, after budgeting my time I've found that it will be nearly impossible to do the kegerator and I don't want to rush it.

I know autolysis is the bogeyman but I have this irrational fear of him right now. Should I leave the beers in primary while I'm away (July 18-25) or secondary them? One has been in primary since June 9, the other since June 16. By the time I return, one will have been seven weeks on the cake, the other six. By the time I actually get the kegerator built, that's likely to be eight weeks for one (an ESB), seven for the other (a red wheat).

What say you?

Shouldn't be a problem, shecky. I've left beers on cakes quite a bit longer than that and they cam out fine.

Here is what I would do. I would leave them on the cake. I will leave beers in the primary for 2-3 months all the time, and have not had any problems. Of course if you are worried and have the time to rack them to the secondary then go ahead and rack them. Of course I can be lazy about racking so I go from primary to keg, unless I have a dry hop/fruit addition.

Ed

That's what I figured, guys. Thanks. I just needed some hand-holding.

I'm rather ticked I can't get this thing built this week. I was so looking forward to it. Oh well. Life always gets in the way.

I am have no fear of Autolysis. I have even left beer in primary for 2 months and it was an awesome beer but, why not just rack and prime the kegs?

Do that and they'll be carbed by time you get home. If you can cool store them they be ready to pour the moment the lines are connected. I do this often rather than wait for the gas to carb the beer. Even with scrap yard recovered cornies I have yet to have a problem with the lids sealing despite the low begining pressure.

Fear of the boogie man is never irrational!

I've only had autolysis occur once. That was when I left a yeast cake out on the back porch all summer.

I have a fear of bogies too, I prefer a birdie or par. (boooooo)

You would want to get the beer off the yeast in a big beer (i.e., a BarleyWine). The high alcohol will have trashed the yeast, and together with the large yeast count, can be a problem. Looks like you have small beers (ESB and wheat) so you should be OK.