How long is too long in fermenter?

Hi all,

I brewed an extract kit about one month - 5 weeks ago. It completed fermenting about less than one week in. I still have it in the fermenter and have not yet bottled. Is this okay? Is there a time where it could be considered too long to wait?

I still have the plug and the airlock in it. I also did this with cider I brewed. It's still sitting in the glass carboy with airlock and spigot for over a month.

In my mind, it makes me think that it's spoiled, since it's sitting. Nothing is growing in it, and there are no signs of infection, in case anyone was wondering.

Thanks all.

Brett

 

It will be just fine. Bottle or keg it. I typically leave all of my batches in the fermenter for 30 days to mature and clean on the yeast cake with no issues. Ever.

Legal disclaimer: I do use a digitally controlled fermentation chamber

 

There is a fairly large percentage of home brewers that routinely leave their beers in the fermenter for at least a month.

Your beer is fine. The only beers that might suffer are highly hopped ones. The hop flavor and aroma will have started to degrade by that time.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=621287

 

Thanks all! Much appreciated. Sounds like I may have actually done a good thing!

Does that go for the cider too?

 

I'm still a bottler and at times, while waiting for empty bottles, I have left beer in it's original primary bucket for 2-3 months. Never any problem, knock on wood. I have also left beer conditioning in a carboy sitting in a water bath that I use for 'lagering' for 4-5 months at a time. These I add a pinch of dry yeast at bottling time, just to be sure.

 

Good to know! Thanks again. Looking forward to trying one of these guys to see if it will actually taste better!

 

Cider generally takes some time to mature and mellow out a bit, so it goes doubly for the cider.

 

Perfect, thanks!

 

Question for you all... I have a Stella clone Lager in the primary for about a week and a half so far that was fermenting at a controlled 52 degrees. How long should I leave it here before increasing the temp for the diacetyl rest, how long should I do that, and then how long should I leave it in the keg "lagering" before connecting it to Co2 and being able to drink?

Lastly... since all this time past with the yeast cake sitting their... can I still harvest the yeast after the diacetyl rest? Curious about reusing it for a octoberfest.. thanks for all your input, just trying to make sure the timing is right

 

I was curious how much difference does it make to ferment for 2 weeks verse letting sit for a month ?

 

Depends a lot on the beer itself. Really a similar aging process happens in the bottles too, so you can bottle it when it's finished fermenting at two weeks and then allow it to sit in the bottles for a while with much the same result. From what I gather, aging is more efficient when done in bulk though, so leaving it in the carboy for a month before bottling will allow you to taste the beer much further along in the process when you finally do taste it.