What's the longest you've kept a beer in primary (and still drank it)

Based on thadass' post where he kept a beer in primary for 291 days, I was curious how long other's have kept beer in primary and then still drank it. And importantly, how did it turn out.

For me, it was 5 weeks. It was an imperial stout and we were going on a three week vacation, so I brewed it about 10 days before we left just to make sure fermentation was going okay and then left it in primary until we returned and then I transferred it to secondary a few days later and kept it in there for 5 more weeks. It's still young, so I've only had one, but it's great so far.

So what's yours?

I've done 5 or 6 weeks so far. My latest batch of Maori IPA got a lacto infection & it also took longer to ferment out. But it's fine now.

7 weeks. Fermentation stopped early and I had some methods to try in an effort to restart it. It didn't work so I eventually gave up. It's delicious.

3 weeks here for primary.

5 months.

It was an American Stout and scored 43.5 in a large homebrew competition.

Since my second batch, I have not secondaried at all. It's been up to 6 weeks and no issues or the dreaded autolysis off flavor bogie monster. Have a saison I hit with brett that is going on month 4 but a bit of O2 transfer and dead yeast are a non-issue with the brett.

Most of mine I plan to primary for 4 weeks, inevitably get lazy and put off bottling another week to make it 5 total. Never had a problem. Bring most down to the LHBS when I visit to shoot the ****. Since day one he has tore up any faults he finds (is a bjcp judge) but he has never found an issue related to autolysis, if anything it's recipe related. Just don't tell him that I never secondary, he firmly believes that if one skips secondary, the brewing gods will come forth and smite thee with terrible beer, guaranteed.

4 weeks in primary but now if your talking going to secondary i've got a tripel that will have it's 1 year birthday in early March.

Not a big fan of letting it sit on the yeast for too long.

The time I quoted was all primary time,btw. I only secondary when oaking & the like.

mtnagel said:

Based on thadass' post where he kept a beer in primary for 291 days, I was curious how long other's have kept beer in primary and then still drank it. And importantly, how did it turn out.

For me, it was 5 weeks. It was an imperial stout and we were going on a three week vacation, so I brewed it about 10 days before we left just to make sure fermentation was going okay and then left it in primary until we returned and then I transferred it to secondary a few days later and kept it in there for 5 more weeks. It's still young, so I've only had one, but it's great so far.

So what's yours?

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I left a Scottish wee heavy in primary for about 8 weeks. At some point it soured ever so slightly which imparted a wonderful tang to the beer.

And for your next thread, "How many stop signs can you run before you wreck your car?"

6 months of a rauchenbier sitting in a better bottle.

Came out clean and smooth.

AnOldUR said:

And for you next thread, "How many stop signs can you run before you wreck your car?"

Click to expand...

That seems to imply that there's something inherently wrong with spending a long time in primary. There isn't, although there certainly are risks.

Now, about that stop sign thread, lemme see...one, two, CRUNCH.

Two.

I agree as long as the airlock does not get compromised you are good to go. The yeast should just go dormant and will become active again when sugar and air are introduced!

Looks like thadass' 291 days is still the record

mtnagel said:

Looks like thadass' 291 days is still the record

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That's a hard act to follow. I have no interest in trying.

My max has been 8 weeks, with no ill effects.

About 4 months on my Darkness clone attempt. Turned out fantastic and somewhat close to the real thing, but fermented down to 1.016, so it's too thin, and unfortunately it's noticeable. I don't think that had anything to do with being in the primary so long, but I could be wrong.

No,it wouldn't. You just didn't have enough unfermentables in the batch to get it closer. Or maybe your yeast attenuated more than the original?

I left two beers in primaries for just over 6 months, and they both came out great. One was a porter, and the other an IPA. I dry hopped the IPA with a ton of hops before kegging to regain some of the faded hop flavors.

unionrdr said:

No,it wouldn't. You just didn't have enough unfermentables in the batch to get it closer. Or maybe your yeast attenuated more than the original?

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Not sure. Haven't had a chance to do the final calculations. Beersmith estimated FG ~ 1.024.

This one was weird. Got stuck at 1.033, then 2 months later started fermenting again. I detailed everything here.

Learned a lot from this batch, the biggest being 007 needs precise ferm control!

Yeah,some yeast do have a rather narrow range,beyond the sweet spot.

DrWill said:

That's a hard act to follow. I have no interest in trying.

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You might have no interest. However I have one in primary now that will be there 365 days before being racked into secondary onto 25 lbs of cherries for another 365 days.

Yes... I have a beer that will be taking 2 years from initial brew day to bottling day.

Flanders red for 13 months, tastes great!

Non-sour: 4 months of an Irish red. It tastes great!

I have a lambic that I brewed in August 2012 that's still in primary. So, like 16 months or so?

Tastes good so far but I'm letting it go awhile longer.

I had a 2 hearted clone that sat in primary for a little over 6 months got busy with our first baby. I finally dry hopped in the primary and cold crashing 5 days later and that beer turned out great and crystal clear.

I was wondering how long it would take for some sour brewers to chime in! That's a world I haven't quite ventured into yet, but hope to.

My friend and I brewed an Oud Bruin and left it in the primary (and actually forgot about it) for about a year and 2 months and then we decided to pull the towel off the carboy while brewing one weekend in the back of the room thinking it was empty and realized we'd forgotten to bottle it. And we had no other fermentation vessel ready at the time.

So yeah... that was an interesting and frenzied brewday. :cross:

But we got her bottled up and freed up the carboy and both beers turned out well, especially the Bruin. That is just a crazy style of beer, and I'll probably never brew it again but it definitely sticks in my mind as one of the most interesting beers I've ever made.

Not in the primary, but my brother has 1/2 a corney keg of one of our first blonds brewed almost 3 years ago that he just recently "discovered." I think we swapped out draft equipment from his kegarator to make a jockey box for a camping trip and he never quite got the kegerator put back together to finish it off then forgot about it. He is bringing it down this weekend and we figured what the hell, lets see what it taste like.

Wish I would have kept better notes so I had tasting notes from when we first drank it way back when.

About 13 months. An imperial brown ale and a strong scotch ale. Both were great, but they were temp controlled the whole time. I had a lot of job responsibilities change at the time, so I paused brewing and didn't check them until I was about to start up again.

@29thfloor Since 2012? That's some slow-town brother!

6 weeks for a hefeweizen. It was nearly a crystal - weizen by that time.!

Sort of off topic...what's the longest you would let a beer sit AND wash the yeast?