How long can you age a beer and still bottle it?

Venari · Aug 21, 2015

6 months? 12 months?

How long until the yeast wont carb up a bottle?

kombat · Aug 21, 2015

More than 3 months and I'd consider adding additional yeast during bottling.

But Venari, seriously, do you really think you can keep a carboy of beer unmolested in that house for 6-12 months?

cannman · Aug 21, 2015

Eeeh... If you're going to more than a couple of months, consider aging in kegs off the yeast cake and force carbonating when you're ready to bottle... I'd be more concerned with the off flavors of autolysis than flat beer... If you don't have the kegging system ready, then get a solid rack off the yeast cake, do your aging, and then re pitch some yeast when bottling.

But to truly answer your question, I guess it depends on what yeast you are using and what the alcohol content of your beer is...

Venari · Aug 21, 2015

kombat said:
More than 3 months and I'd consider adding additional yeast during bottling.

But Venari, seriously, do you really think you can keep a carboy of beer unmolested in that house for 6-12 months?

What I did was I put the beer into a keg and aged it in there. It appears that opening a keg seems to flummox even the thirstiest of alcoholics!

I've still got a pumpkin ale that I made last september. Still waiting on parts to come in the mail to finish the wiring on my new keezer.

cannman said:
But to truly answer your question, I guess it depends on what yeast you are using and what the alcohol content of your beer is...

I can't remember what the OG was for this, and I didn't keep notes on it. But I seem to remember putting US05 into there.

60acresbrewclub · Aug 27, 2015

8 months was the longest I've left a beer in secondary and now that I think about it I still haven't opened the bottles yet February is the aniversery so that's probably when I'm going to crack it.

To test yeast viability:
When I bottled it that last little bit that never siphons out I filled a plastic pilsner glass added a packet of sugar for coffee and covered with a surgical glove. Three days and the glove was standing up enough to indicate the yeast is good...a better test would have been to use the same percentage of maple syrup to beer, I never anticipated drinking it...but I did anyway.