MedicineMan
Well-Known Member
How long can you age in the secondary and still bottle condition the beer?
Aging in the secondary
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shawnbfromjersey
Member
Age in secondary for 10 days. Use gelatin to clear up the brew. U can do a quick qoogle search on how to use gelatin in beer. And as for bottleling, dont do it. Why wait another 2 to 3 weeks for your beer to condition. Just force carbonate. U can do it easlily with 2 liter soda bottles and a carbonation cap and a co2 paintball tank from walmart. Just google co2 carbonation caps and u will find them. They are 15 bucks a piece, or u can make one out of a tire valve stem for 2 bucks, so easy. The paintball tanks are refillable too. Only 3 bucks a dicks sporting goods
MedicineMan said:
My longest personal secondary so far is 2 months after about 3 weeks in primary. However, I've seen posts here reporting well over 6 month secondaries without any adverse effect on bottle conditioning.
horsesqueeze.
Carb your bottles however you see fit (bottle, keg or drink them flat if you prefer). Personally, I like the Zen aspect of beer making/bottle filling and while I have a keg kit sitting in a keezer, I've yet to make a beer I don't want to bottle (yet). I know this summer I'll do a BM Cream of 3 Crops and maybe a nice easy Cherry Oatmeal Stout but for now I'm content with the ritual of corn sugar, bottles and labels. It is a "hobby" after all... There's very little ways to do it right and also do it wrong...
What are you really asking? Is there going to be enough yeast after a long secondary to carb your beer?
Because really secondary has little or no bearing on carbing a beer. You can secondary for years, and then carb your beer. Of course, if you do that, if beer is in secondary for for anything over six months, we recommend you add a little fresh yeast on bottling day along with the priming sugar.
That's really all you need to do....
But you can secondary a beer for decades (if the airlock stays dry and the temps are fairly stable) and then fresh yeast it, prime in and it will be fine.
My five year aging 1.171 og Barelwine will probably be close to 2 years in a tertiary before I get it into bottles. It will carb just fine with fresh yeast.
I've had beers in extended primary or secondary for 6 months that carbed just fine without fresh yeast. But after 6 months it's a good idea.
In the future you need to be a little clearer, or a little more detailed in your questions, if you want a straight answer, as you can see you got all sorts of answers none of them really truly seeming to be what you're looking for, somewhat contradictory, in the case of shawn's, having little or nothing to do with the discussion at hand (The answer to a bottling question is NOT "Keg."
)
I have an idea what you were asking because 2-3 people ask this a day...
Because really secondary has little or no bearing on carbing a beer. You can secondary for years, and then carb your beer. Of course, if you do that, if beer is in secondary for for anything over six months, we recommend you add a little fresh yeast on bottling day along with the priming sugar.
That's really all you need to do....
But you can secondary a beer for decades (if the airlock stays dry and the temps are fairly stable) and then fresh yeast it, prime in and it will be fine.
My five year aging 1.171 og Barelwine will probably be close to 2 years in a tertiary before I get it into bottles. It will carb just fine with fresh yeast.
I've had beers in extended primary or secondary for 6 months that carbed just fine without fresh yeast. But after 6 months it's a good idea.
In the future you need to be a little clearer, or a little more detailed in your questions, if you want a straight answer, as you can see you got all sorts of answers none of them really truly seeming to be what you're looking for, somewhat contradictory, in the case of shawn's, having little or nothing to do with the discussion at hand (The answer to a bottling question is NOT "Keg."
)I have an idea what you were asking because 2-3 people ask this a day...
velorider11
Well-Known Member
I'm just now finishing a Belgian tripel that I had in primary for 6 months with no problems of off flavors. I used a packet of dry yeast at bottling and after a month, I had all the effervescence a good tripel should. I'm off secondaries and will just do a long primary for high gravity beers like the Belgian strong golden I'm about to brew next week.
do what now?like others have stated, you can age your beer as long as YOU want/need to without affecting bottle conditioning. you only need a little yeast left to carb the bottles, and unless you filter through a .5 micron filter, that yeast should be there. i agree that if it's gone more than a few months in secondary that you might want to use a bit of fresh yeast to carb the bottles.
as far as force carbing in a 2 litre bottle with a paintball tank, i'm not sure how you'd use a paintball co2 tank to carbonate or serve 'force carbed' beer from a two litre, but it sounds like a silly idea to me.
PimpHandBrew
Member
Ok. you say being in a secondary for a extended amount of time is ok. Great. i have had a English brown in the secondary for 2 1/2 months, but the temp has fluctuated over that time. I was told by the LHBS to pitch some yeast, prime and bottle. So I came home jumped on here and searched. They suggested Safale s-04, which i bought with bottles, caps and some starsan. I am juiced up and ready to go, but how much yeast do i add? a packet, half, a quarter?
just save the S-04, you should be fine as is
I would NOT bother with more yeast. 2.5 months is nothing. Many people here leave beer 6 months in secondary and it carbonates just with priming sugar. Save your S-04 for your next brew :rockin:
If you plan to brew for a long time, you will want to consider temperature control for your fermentations. It makes an enormous difference in the quality! Until then, brew strong!
Yes, Unless we're looking at over 6 months, but really a year, unless this is a high gravity beer, you really don't need to re-yeast.
PimpHandBrew
Member
Nice. thanks. trying to get the wife to ok another kit, i will add bucket/bottle warmer on next order. This Site ROCKS:rockin:
