Left beer on yeast cake for 4 months....what to expect?

So back in August I brewed a barley wine. After two weeks I was supposed to transfer to secondary and let age for 3-4 months. Well more or less because of my work schedule and laziness that never happened. Anyways flash forward to know, I just bottled the beer last week. The sample tasted fine to me, sweet, pretty malty, rich (my beer tasting abilities are fairly unrefined....though don't get me wrong I can drink them with the best of them). I've recently been reading a lot more on here and elsewhere and seen the dangers of yeast autolysis and recommendations to not leave a beer in primary for more than a month. I have no idea what type of flavors would indicated autolysis. What may have happened to my beer? Did I screw it up mightily? Per the directions I followed its supposed to condition 3 weeks total before cracking open....two weeks to go.

Thanks.

 

It's fine and probably tastes the same as it would have if you had done as planned. Everyone gets in a hurry... enjoy the beer!

 

If anything it could have probably spent some more time bulk conditioning.

I've got a barleywine that's been in my primary vessel for 2 months and I don't plan on bottling it for another 3 months or so.

Beer is beer.

 

This was my first attempt at a barley wine. I brewed it in August with the idea that I was not going to get the opportunity to brew again till now, so it did not matter if it tied up my equipment. Thus dictated by my work schedule. There lies the reasoning for not aging it longer. My next attempt will probably be longer.

 

Try one after three weeks of conditioning, per the recipe, and a week of refrigeration. Try the next one three weeks after that. This style of beer needs time to fully condition.

 

I put one in the fridge yesterday after one week of conditioning. Figured I would give it a try at different variables to see how it changes and try to learn more about that process.

 

I've had grub turn to soap after a really long primary. Dumped the batch.

 

The yeast autolysis thing has been debunked--at least for homebrewing. It's a real issue for commercial brewers, due to the pressures and temp buildup in the big conical fermenters. But for buckets and carboys, it won't become an issue, unless you have the beer on the cake a very long time.

Four months on the cake shouldn't affect your beer.

 

Usually for autolysis reasons, people bulk condition in a secondary. Whether or not autolysis is a real concern at the homebrew level is up for debate, but going to secondary a month into fermentation renders it moot. I just put a 12.4% ABV barleywine into secondary (with a dash of boiled table sugar to ferment up a bit of CO2 for oxidation protection) last night. With that much invested in a beer, why would I risk ruining it by leaving it on the yeast?

Err, wha???

 

As I said I wasn't purposely leaving it there. My work schedule from August-mid November is 7 days/week 70-80 hrs/week. Thus the reason the beer never got transferred. Learning a lot very day though.

Just out of curiosity, how long has your 12.4% ABV barley wine been aging/fermenting for? What's your plan for it?

 

Brewed a month ago, racked two days ago. I'm still not certain what I'm going to do about bottling. It's meant for next winter and it will be dry hopped, so I might keep it in the carboy until next September. However, it'll be entered into a competition in June, so I might dry hop and bottle the whole batch a couple months before the competition rather than just filling four bottles to send in. I'm also considering oaking it, but haven't made a decision on the matter.

 

Sounds interesting. Would be interested in hearing how it turns out and how it does at competition.

So I got impatient and tried a bottle after one week. No smell at all and a strong cough syrup taste. I poured the glass out. Looking in my copy of 'How to Brew' I don't feel like it really matches any of the off flavor descriptions. My best thoughts were mainly possibly the fermentation temps. I used a swamp cooler for the first time and struggled to keep the temp consistent. This was kept in my basement in the middle of a North Carolina summer. Maybe too warm of fermentation temps. Or could this flavor be contributed to having left it in primary for too long.

Thoughts?

 

Don't get discouraged yet. Transfer it to a secondary now. Leave it in secondary for 4 - 6 months. Bottle and leave it alone for another 4 - 6 months then try some.. Barleywines benefit from long aging. 9 months to a few years......

 

It's already in bottles. Bottled 1 week ago. Sat in primary for 4 months. Tasted it at bottling time, did not taste like this.

 

Those could be phenols you are tasting. High fermentation temps could be the culprit. Give it time, the flavors may age out in a few months.

 

My first BWs was almost down the toilet, after kegging and bottling (2 months) it tasted bad. I bottles the whole keg and it has been sitting for over a year. It now has a very good taste. These beers take a lot of time, be patient. Good Luck