How long is too long in the secondary

[toadfuller]

Let's say life just got away from me.. and now I have had a double hopped IPA sitting in the secondary for darned near 3 months. How long can it sit there before it is swill? Should I still bottle it?

 

[1stTimer]

In my opinion you should. But I always give it a chance. If you have the bottles I say do it.

 

[Revvy]

In secondary there really is no such thing as too long. You can bulk age for years, of course a month or two is usually all that is necessary for all but big beers. But a beer won't go bad for sitting in a secondary.

The only thing to consider is that you might want to re-dry hop for a week since hop aroma would have faded.

 

[Acoma]

I agree with Revvy. Dry hop it again and then bottle in about a week. If you do, be sure to write back and let us all know how it turns out. Far too many people dont give follow ups for the rest of us to learn from.

 

[toadfuller]

Will do! Dry hop it is, and then on to bottles! I will report back.

 

[Gldnst8warrior]

I have left an IPA in the primary, on the yeast cake for 3 months and it turned out great.

 

[Calder]

I have a Barley Wine currently in Secondary for 4 months, and Brett beer still in Primary after 3 months. I have no concerns with either of them.

 

[asterix404]

The only worry with an IPA is that the hop flavor and aroma will break down, +1 to the dry hop again. For almost every other beer you can just leave it for a very long time. Someone in my brew club left his beer on yeast for 1 year, came back and said it was wonderful.

Actually a question about this. I asked this a while back and never got a response. For an Imperial style beer, it takes quite a long time to mellow generally. Does this mean that when doing a beer that you want serious hop aroma you dry hop a week before bottling? Also what happens with the flavor and bitter compounds over significant time, like 6 months? Will the hops still impart the same bitterness AND flavor? I would expect bitterness to be about the same since iso-alpha acids are very stable, but what about all of the wonderful flavor compounds?

 

[TopherM]

How long is too long in the secondary

You don't want to leave your beer in the secondary more than 90 years. If you do, chances are someone else will end up drinking all your beer.

 

[Exbeerienced]

Wow. Cool. It looks like the "a" word has finally been put out to pasture! I've been away for a while, so this is nice to see.

 

[1stTimer]

So is 80 years too long or just about right? I'm passing on responsibility to my son and then to his children and so on.

 

[Revvy]

You guys might be interested in THIS thread.

 

[asterix404]

You don't get the weight on the yeast that you do in a professional setting so you don't need to worry about autolysis. It all comes from pressure put on the yeast cake and there is a huge difference between 15 barrel and 15G.

 

[BrewerBear]

You guys might be interested in THIS thread.

That was an interesting read

 

[toadfuller]

Okay.. I did dry hop for another week and bottled the beer. There was some seriously weird looking stuff on the top of the wort (see the picture), but I am assuming its just some yeasty thing or another.. I guess time will tell. The beer tasted just fine when I took a little sample from the hydrometer glass - and the beer was nice and clear. If anything this beer might be TOO hoppy! It was seriously bitter. Again... time will tell. I will report back in a month or so when I take a sip.