How long is too long in secondary?

[therackman]

I've got a blonde ale that's been sitting in the secondary fermenter for nearly 2 months now. It's my buddy's beer and I haven't had the motivation to bottle it as I'm kegging my beers now. We haven't had a chance to get together to bottle it yet, so there it sits.

Other than risk of an infection, is there anything i need to worry about with it sitting in the secondary for this long? It doesn't seem much different than if it were sitting in bottles at room temp after bottling so I haven't worried about it. Should I?

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

I have had this question myself tho my situation was that I brew my beers a little too early and end up not having any room to put them.

My thought is the same as yours. Since it's in secondary you have taken the beer off a majority of the yeast and the little fermentation it experiences in the secondary should be enough to push all the air out of the fermenter so it pretty much is just aging as if it would in the bottles.

If you get worried if say use a wine thief and sample some to get an idea if its gone bad after a while. But besides that I wouldn't see any harm in leaving it in secondary as long as you keep it out of the sun and temperature controlled. Cheers.

 

[Setesh]

Nope, it's fine. There should still be enough yeast to carb it when you bottle it. I had one that I literally stuck in the closet and forgot about for more than 6 months. It carbed up fine when I bottled it although it did take longer than normal. As for infection, again, it should be fine. Even if the airlock when dry they are designed so that particulate gets trapped in the bend or in the bottom instead of falling into your beer. The CO2 layer on top of the beer protects it from oxygen exposure as well.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

106 years 8 months 14 days 9 hours 52 minutes and 12 seconds might be too long.

 

[homebrewdad]

Meh, it's fine. I've done a 4 month secondary after a 4 week primary, and the beer was fine, carbed up great, etc. Lots of posters have let beer go longer than that.

 

[Chipsifford]

Pumpkin ale in secondary for 1 year. Is it ok to keg or should I toss it?

 

[Setesh]

Pumpkin ale in secondary for 1 year. Is it ok to keg or should I toss it?

No. The only reason to throw out a beer after conditioning it for 1 year is if it got infected or you find out your daughter had been removing the stopper/airlock and dropping coins and pebbles into it cause she liked the sound and splash that made......

Anyway, it might have taken a while to carbonate if you were bottling but you are kegging so transfer that puppy and let us know how it turned out!

 

[Chipsifford]

Thanks for the advice. I'll keg it soon and let y'all know how it turns out.

 

[savannahbrew]

Definitely keep the beer. I recently found myself kegging a 60 minute clone that had been left in the primary for right at 5 months. Dry hopped for a couple days and kegged. It turned out great. Life goes on and the beer just keeps on staying the same.