Conditioning in fermenter vs. bottle.

[arbadarchi]

I currently have a stout in primary (deception cream stout) and the the OP says leave it in the fermenter for a month. This leaves me wondering, after reaching final gravity, is it the same to just bottle it and leave it in the bottle longer? Or does leaving it in primary have an additional benefit?

 

[hanuswalrus]

I've been wondering about this lately as well.. I've read of people just bottling after a month or so in primary, and I've also seen others suggest bulk aging the beer in secondary for an additional 1-2 months. Especially for big stouts/belgians/porters/barley wines. I'm thinking the latter is a good idea for the more impatient home brewer, as the beer will already have at least a couple months on it before it's even bottled.

 

[maddcow]

I would think bulk aging gives better consistency for the batch. As bottles, each can be slightly different with minor changes in yeast/temp/oxygen/CO2. Grand scheme of things, probably not enough to make a difference. I have no facts to back any of this up though

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

You can ferment/age in primary for a month and or two. After that, it's not good to leave it too long on the yeast. You can get funky flavors. You can bottle after a month and age in the bottle. If you really want to age in the fermenter you should rack it off the yeast into secondary. I pretty much don't do secondary. I've left some high gravity brews in primary for 6 weeks or so without problems. Frankly, I don't have enough fermenters to keep anything in them for too long. It jams up my pipeline

 

[Yooper]

I never go a month in the primary, as I don't like the yeast character imparted by such a long contact time, but many others do.

Beer ages just fine in a bottle, so you can bottle it once it's been finished (at FG ) for at least a day or two. I like to wait until the beer is clear, or at least clearing, so there is less crud in the bottle, but there is no real advantage to holding the beer in the fermenter ultra-long vs bottling it.

 

[WrQth]

I never go a month in the primary, as I don't like the yeast character imparted by such a long contact time, but many others do.

Beer ages just fine in a bottle, so you can bottle it once it's been finished (at FG ) for at least a day or two. I like to wait until the beer is clear, or at least clearing, so there is less crud in the bottle, but there is no real advantage to holding the beer in the fermenter ultra-long vs bottling it.

But how do you tell when a stout is clearing? And if it is in a non-transparent vessel such as a SS Brewtech BrewBucket?

 

[hanuswalrus]

Pull a sample