How long can I leave beer in a primary or secondary

[rskelhorn]

Just looking for clarification on the following:

If I leave beer in a primary fermenter for 2-3 weeks is there concern that the yeast will not carbonate the bottled beer?

Reason I ask is I generally bottle ~1.5 weeks and have no issues, but I made an apple wine which I left for 4 weeks. When I bottled the apple wine and added the priming sugar, it did not carbonate. No big deal because my wife liked it the way it was.

Another situation is one time after fermenting in a carboy for 2 weeks I transferred to a bottling bucket. Left it in there for 24 hrs and bottled and it didn't carbonate well.

I'm going to brew the blood orange Belgian wit here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/blood-orange-belgian-wit-243503/

Bit new to this whole thing, just want to be sure I fully understand this so I don't end up bottling beer which would never carbonate. Is this something I should worry about? What if I leave the beer alone in the primary for 5 weeks because I was away on a trip? How long is yeast generally viable?

Edit: My brew room is ~16C which has been fine. I do wonder if it is a poor temperature for newly bottled beer to sit, or if it should be warmer.

 

[Husher]

I use a secondary on my beer for months. 3-6 of them. No issues with carbonation. However I've made 3-4 batches of applewine I've carbonated. It never really gets that carbonated when compared to beer. Not sure why, the solution just won't take it. But your experience is similar to mine, and beer will carbonate just fine months after being in a primary or secondary.

 

[duboman]

Warmer than 16C which is only 60F, you want them 70F or above to carbonate timely.

I've lagered beer for two months and never had a problem carbonating so it's not the time, it's the temp


Sent from the Commune

 

[tooldudetool]

You should have no trouble carbonating after a month, even longer. I would look at your temp, like duboman said, keep it closer to 70 for several weeks for carbonating before chilling. I would also make sure you are using the correct amount of priming sugar, maybe you just didn't use enough.

 

[cluckk]

Your wine had probably gone above the tolerance of the yeast. The one that you left for 24 hours had probably eaten up the priming sugar before you bottled. A few weeks is fine. I've had problems with a beer that was six months in the fermenter, but it was high enough alcohol I probably would have had problems long before.

If you are ever worried about not having enough suspended yeasts there are dry yeasts that you can add specifically for bottle conditioning.

 

[rskelhorn]

Great info guys, really makes sense.

From what I gather the colder temp will still carb beer, but just take longer?

Interesting note regarding the tolerance of the yeast. I did just use a coopers dry yeast for ale. Perhaps if I bought a higher tolerance yeast I'd have more luck carbonating the wine.

I've been using coopers drops for carbonation.

 

[freisste]

Perhaps if I bought a higher tolerance yeast I'd have more luck carbonating the wine.

Lots of people use champagne yeast for this exact reason. It has high alcohol tolerance but very mild, neutral flavors. Or so I've heard.

 

[dangerbrew]

Great info guys, really makes sense.

From what I gather the colder temp will still carb beer, but just take longer?

Yup. It's easier at around 64-67 F or so but you can easily cellar it for a while in the 50s. With beer, patience usually tends to help most things.

 

[morticaixavier]

Yup. It's easier at around 64-67 F or so but you can easily cellar it for a while in the 50s. With beer, patience usually tends to help most things.

many commercial breweries that bottle condition have a conditioning room that is kept ~75-80 for this purpose. Sierra Nevada is one off the top of my head.

 

[freisste]

I've also heard of people running experiments where they put bottled beer right next to their furnace, etc. where temps rose into and above the 90's. They reported no ill results. This is somewhat anecdotal (and extreme), but it adds to my confidence that you cannot unintentionally overtemp a carbonating beer.

 

[rskelhorn]

Ha no kidding. I'll bring the crates into a warmer room for a couple of weeks.

Ironic that friends invited me out to Boston Pizza last night, and I was served flat beer.. haha