how long in a plastic primary?

[cackalacky]

How long can it sit in an ale pail before you have to worry about oxidation?

 

[Revvy]

How long can it sit in an ale pail before you have to worry about oxidation?

About 10 years......

Or longer than you will be leaving it in.....

Oxydation, especially becasue of "plastic fermeters" is really just a myth perpetuated by the glass carboy industry to get you to buy glass over plastic ..

Seriously, it, like so much stuff you may have come across in your reading (like hot side aeration, autolysis, even infections) are very over blown and /or actually are of more concern to commercial brewers than homebrewers.

It takes a lot more oxygen exposure of our beer to cause any damage, than what we do in the normal course of our brewing AND in most of the boneheaded mistakes we make(including using our autosiphon like a hand pump if it gets stuck) or typical bubbles in the lines.

Or leaving our beer in plastic buckets for a long time.

In a basic brewing podcast years ago, one of the big wigs, John Palmer, or Chris Colby (the editor of BYO) said that the amount of oxygen to actually damage our beer, is actually far in excess of what we do in the normal course of brewing and even most of our accidents. And requires about the amount of oxygen that we could pump in by emptying one of our red oxygen bottles with an airstone into our bottling bucket....not the normal amount of motion we make if we are careful brewers.

Also the effects of oxydation are long term they affect the storage of beers...Unless you pumped an oxygen bottle into your finished beer, you will have consumed your two cases of beer long before any signs of oxydation would show up..

Many of us leave our beers in our fermenters (including buckets) for a month or more with no ill effects...We opt for a long primary over a primary/secondary...

and haven't had an issue with oxidation....

It has been proven on here that the "oxygen permeability" bs you might have heard about is really infintismal, and really NOT much different that any other fermenter you may consider, glass or otherwise.

 

[Bassman]

That was good info Revvy, it took a load off my brewing mind.

 

[Freddy57]

I leave my beer in my plastic primary for 4 to 6 weeks routinely and never have any trouble with my beer. Revvy spelled it out very succinctly above and I concur 100%.

 

[cackalacky]

Cool. Thanks guys. I'll stop worrying now.

I would have already racked to secondary but I want to reuse the yeast cake.

 

[Edcculus]

Also, remember people age beer and wine in wooden barrels. Those are a LOT more permeable than glass or plastic.

 

[Weaselboys]

Rev,
Funny and informative.
Thanks.
Mike

 

[homebrewer_99]

The longest I've ever gone in a plastic primary was 34 days once. It won Best of Show...