Aging A Tripel - Secondary vs Bottling?

[kombatkoala]

I just made my first Belgian-style Tripel last night, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Everything I read on these is that they're best if aged for more than a few months. While I will soon have an English Brown Ale to tide me over, I was curious if there was any difference or caveats for aging in a secondary fermenter vs aging in bottles.

The bottles obviously will have the priming sugar, but would that change the flavor that much? Or does it help to mix the flavors vs a non-carbonated 5gal container?

 

[Neonsilver]

Bulk aging works a little faster and it also keeps consistency up at a higher level.

 

[kombatkoala]

Cool, so I should just leave it in the secondary for a few months? Or should I transfer to another just to clear some of the sediment out?

 

[Neonsilver]

Cool, so I should just leave it in the secondary for a few months? Or should I transfer to another just to clear some of the sediment out?

How much trub is on the bottom?

 

[kombatkoala]

I just put it in the primary yesterday, so hopefully very little at the moment. Is there a general rule, or is it just personal preference?

 

[broadbill]

I think its more personal preference more than anything. There really isn't any concrete data that concludes that using a secondary improves your beer any more than leaving it in the primary for a similar amount of time. All depends on what you think and what your setup is. You might want to move it to a secondary in order to free up your primary, for example.

 

[Neonsilver]

Mostly just personal preference but if you have a lot of trub from transfering too soon than it might be a good idea to do another change. The less transfers that you have to do though, the better.

My personal preference is usually just a primary and no secondary. So far I've only used it on a big RIS and an American barleywine. The barleywine is getting oaked for a few months so it was something I had to do. If you wait around three or four weeks most of the trub should settle out and you'll only need to do one transfer though.

 

[kombatkoala]

I've always been curious if it mattered to switch to a secondary almost as soon as fermentation slowed.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[boswell]

The bulk age vs bottle age debate is always an interesting one. I'd like to try to experiment with maybe a 3gallon secondary, and bottle a couple gallons, age them the same amount of time, then try them side by side. Could be interesting.