How long should I use my secondary fementer

Am brewing a Malt Extract Imperial Nut Brown Ale. I brewed this on 9/2/12 and racked it to my secondary fermenter on 9/8/12. The OG was 1.074 and the final should be roughly 1.017. I've read that the higher the OG the longer the conditioning time the better the outcome. I was thinking about bottling this Sunday (10/7/12) which would have the beer in the conditioning phase for almost exactly a month with exactly 5 weeks of total fermentation. Does this sound about right? Or should it condition longer?

 

What was the recipes expected final gravity? Higher gravity does take longer to be ready. More time does not hurt anyting.

 

The recipes final gravity calls for 1.016-1.019. I keep reading longer doesn't hurt but do you think this weekend (total of 5 weeks) is long enough?

 

A month in the secondary should be plenty of time.

Did you take a gravity reading before transferring to the secondary? It's important to make sure the gravity is at or near the FG (or at least stable for a few days) before transferring. And you may want to leave it in the primary for more than 6 days to allow the yeast to clean up their by-products. But, in the end, it will be beer - and that's the important part!

 

Yes I did a gravity reading when I transferred to the secondary and it was 1.022. I had read that's long as its dropped 66%-75% it's okay to rack. Is that incorrect?

 

Well I am certainly no expert, but I think most of the fermentation happens in the primary. Obviously there are still yeast in the secondary but fewer in number. The only way to know for sure is to take a gravity reading now, or bottle it and RDWHAHB!

 

What is RDWHAHB?

 

Oh no here we go..... It stands for

Righteous divorcees who have alimony hate beggars

 

Ahhh.. Grassshopper