secondary/dry hop question

[shadygrove96]

so admittedly, i only briefly looked through previous posts to try and find an answer to this and didnt see anything... so im going to ask and hope for responses.

im a little concerned about my current batch. its a black ipa. i brewed it way back at the end of december. it sat in the primary for a little over 2 weeks. i then transfered it to secondary. waited a week. dry hopped. my intention was for the dry hopping to last about a week in the secondary. well, i had some major things come up and have had a hard time getting around to bottling it. so long story short, its been sitting in the secondary for about 4 weeks with the dry hops, 5 weeks total.

am i running any serious risks letting it sit for so long in the secondary, have i ruined it? can dry hopping for this long cause any problems/infections/off flavors? am i worrying for nothing?

fyi, its in a glass carboy, in a box, with no prolonged exposure to light and the airlock has been on the entire time.

thanks in advance.

 

[BendBrewer]

You run the risk of grassy flavors. If anything, rack them off of the hops and then you buy yourself some more time.

 

[PVH]

I once left the hops in for three weeks with no bad effects. Like you, I wanted to package sooner, but never had the time.

Hopefully your beer is fine. If anything, I bet the bad flavors will age out. Maybe someone could chime in with their experience on this.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

The same thing happened to me with a Pliny clone, I left the dry hops in there for about 4 weeks. Some people say if you dry hop to long you get a grassy smell from the hops.

I was worried about this, but to tell you the truth it came out awesome, I am sure it would have been hoppier if I bottled when i was suppose to. The taste wasnt as hoppy compared to the first Pliny clone I did, but still delicious and nothing undesirable. I actually liked it a little maltier, but I believe that was due to the beer aging 4 weeks more than I did on my first one.

Long story short, bottle it and find out; and keep us updated.

 

[Seven]

When are you planning to bottle it?

I'd say go ahead and bottle it soon 'cuz you never know, it may turn out beautifully.

 

[dzlater]

How does it taste?