Beer left to long on primary fermentation? (pilsner)

[joricam]

Hello guys, I'm new here and I made my first beer with a friend, we made two, a Pilsner and a IPA, these where made from liquid malt extract pre-mashed, those muntons/brewferm kits.

Everything went accordingly except that the beer measurements are stable for 10 days already but the beer is still on the primary fermentation bucket, the reason being so is that the bottles took to long to arrive, they will only arrive next week, so I cant bottle it yet.

The pilsner so far turned dark, my questions is, can it go bad? Spoil? How do I know if its good? Should I bottle it or trow it away and start again?

Kind Regards

 

[SUCCESSOR]

By all accounts that I have read(newbie here too) it can stay in the primary for one (possibly even two) months without any ill effects. If it does pick up some off flavors a lot of the time those will age out. The only reason to throw it is if you see mold, very obvious mold. Obviously you need to taste it before you bottle.

 

[NadoHawk]

How old were the kits? Extract tends to darken over time as it gets past its prime shelf life; I hear there are homebrewers who will use it within two weeks of purchase for optimum flavor and SRM. It's why I brew darker beers with extract. When I brewed a Coopers draught (should have been straw colored) that expired, the beer turned out to be darker than a dark amber ale.

I would bottle it. I am a strongly against throwing away beer. Even bad batches can taste decent after 6 months to two years. Yes I have kept beer around for two years just to see it get better.

 

[CJ-3]

Take a sample of it and taste it. If it does not taste foul or infected, you are good to go.

 

[antony]

I've left beer in primary for 4-5 weeks with no ill effects. It all really depends on your sanitation. Definitely reduce the amount of times you open the bucket, you'll only want to do that when bottling at this point.

Also, my experiences with extracts have also led me to the conclusion that they are almost always darker than had you mashed grain. Patiently wait for your bottles, you're fine.

 

[kh54s10]

A few things; your beer will look a lot darker in the fermenter than it will in a glass. Extracts tend to be a little darker than an all grain equivalent. A month or more is not really a problem for beer to stay in primary.

Do you have a true Pilsner with a lager yeast? If so you should be fermenting it as a lager. About 50 degrees for 2 weeks, a couple of days near sixty and down to 34 degrees for a couple of weeks or more. If it has ale yeast it is a hybrid kit and will ferment in the mid sixties.

Unless you develop an infection which would show with a filmy, or fuzzy layer on the surface the beer should be good.

Don't mess with the beer, bottle it when you can, condition at about 70 degrees for three weeks and you should have a good beer.

 

[RM-MN]

1. Your beer can spend a lot longer in the primary fermenter than you think and still be fine. I chatted with another brewer who left his beer for 8 months and he said that that still wasn't too long.

2. Your beer looked light in the fermenter while it was fermenting because there was a lot of light colored material being suspended by the activity of the yeast which reflected the light. Once the activity slows down that material and a lot of the yeast settles to the bottom and you beer now looks darker because the light has to pass through the beer instead of being reflected. If you take a sample for your hydrometer reading, that sample will look much lighter in color.

3. While brewing with extract your beer will never be as light colored as that brewed using all grain. When the extract is made, the process of concentrating it will darken it some. When you boil your wort, that will also darken it more through what is know as the Maillard reaction. You can reduce the Maillard reaction by putting in a small portion of the malt extract at the beginning of the boil and the rest near the end so it doesn't have as much time to darken.

 

[unionrdr]

^True this. My first beer was the Cooper's OS lager given with my Micro Brew kit. I followed their instructions, except for the times, which even I saw as too short from family experiences. The beer came out light colored;

This one is from the same style & can, but turned out to be 2 years old. The way I brewed it with plain light Munton's DME & the hops used, it looked & tasted like Salvator doppel bock;

Took awhile to find that one! so extract beers can be quite light colored, but late extract addition will need to be a part of the process, as mentioned.

 

[joricam]

Thanks guys, Ill bottle it up and see how it goes!

 

[unionrdr]

So, was it in primary for 10 days as of the 8th? That might or might not be long enough to get to a stable FG. That depends on other factors, like size & health of yeast pitch, ferment temps, etc. A hydrometer is your friend here.

 

[rekoob]

The beer is probably bad. Bottle it up and send it to me and I will test it out for you.